In conference, ex-hostages recount beatings, fears during Hamas captivity

Former hostages open up about their experiences in Hamas captivity to a crowd of journalists and social media influencers in Sderot, at a conference organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Danielle Aloni, 44, who was released during a weeklong truce in November, recalls that Hamas terrorists brought her and other residents of Nir Oz down to Gaza’s subterranean tunnels on the morning of October 7, when invading terrorists killed over 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.

“I wasn’t injured, though I was beaten on the way,” she adds.

“That definitely qualifies as an injury,” panel host Reshef Levi interrupts, prompting Aloni to clarify she had seen “really appalling injuries — exposed flesh, violent injuries.”

Louis Har, who was freed by the IDF in a rescue operation in February after 129 days in captivity, says that he worried each time he heard Israeli planes overhead.

He recalls that “glass broke, the entire floor shook” when bombs fell in Gaza, and he and other hostages “didn’t know when it would fall on us.”

When asked if she experienced any additional fear as a woman in captivity, Aloni explains that she and her 5-year-old daughter, who was abducted with her, were most afraid that their captors would kill them, “that they would lose their patience as the days progressed.”

“We already know the terrorists aren’t a homogeneous group. They don’t get notes on how to treat the hostages,” she says.