Freed hostage Bar Kuperstein: Captors beat us and ‘said it was because of Ben Gvir’

Freed hostage Bar Kuperstein, who was released from two years of Hamas captivity two weeks ago, says he was beaten and abused by his captors when National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir boasted of his treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Kuperstein, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, says he remembers “days where there was no food. You don’t get. They didn’t bring anything,” he says, saying that his captors were intentionally withholding food and had enough to keep themselves satiated.

One of his captors, he says, would tell them that his job was “to ensure that they don’t treat you too well.”

"כעסתי על הדברים של בן גביר. הוא ידע שאנחנו אצלם בשבי, איך הוא נתן להם להתעלל בנו?": העדות של שורד השבי בר קופרשטיין | הריאיון המלא ביום שלישי בזמן אמת#מהדורתכאןחדשות עם @TaliMoreno_ pic.twitter.com/gxfJQu1GRh

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 26, 2025

Kuperstein says that “around day 270, there was some issue with Ben Gvir and [Palestinian] prisoners… I remember they came to us, and they beat us. They stood us against the wall and gave us a serious beating… they said it was because of Ben Gvir — what he does to our prisoners, you’ll get in return.”

“An eye for an eye — they did it a few more times, came and beat us, and after around a week, I remember they took me to their room, blindfolded, and as I entered there I got two hits to the face, like cymbals,” he recounts. “I fell to the ground from the intensity. They dragged me by the legs around the room, stomped on me, degraded me as much as they could. Then they took my legs and tied them up.”

One of his captors, Kuperstein says, then told him: “Until now we haven’t done anything. Now you’ll feel on your flesh what our prisoners feel [in Israel].”

Kuperstein says in that moment, his life flashed before his eyes, thinking he was about to die. His captors beat him on the legs and feet, as he tried to protect himself, he recounts.

“They broke several bones in my feet, and I couldn’t walk on them for a month or something,” he says.

Asked if he was angry at Ben Gvir, Kuperstein says that he was angry that any actions against Palestinian prisoners were publicized in the media: “You know that we’re being held in their hands, how could you let them abuse us. You’re a minister in the government, you’re supposed to be concerned about us, why aren’t you concerned about us?”