'They wanted to control the kids'

‘One girl was given ketamine’: Israeli doctor says hostages abused, drugged in Gaza

Psychiatrist cites ‘physical, sexual, mental, psychological’ torment, says one freed Hamas captive was held in total darkness for days, others still experience dissociative states

Protesters gather with signs showing portraits of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas massacres, during a demonstration calling for their release outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now informally called the "Hostages Square", in Tel Aviv on December 9, 2023. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Protesters gather with signs showing portraits of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas massacres, during a demonstration calling for their release outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now informally called the "Hostages Square", in Tel Aviv on December 9, 2023. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Hostages hauled into Gaza during Hamas’s grisly October 7 attack on Israel were drugged to keep them docile in captivity and subjected to psychological and sexual abuse, a specialist said Monday.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” in 20 years of treating trauma victims, said Renana Eitan, director of the psychiatric division of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center-Ichilov.

“The physical, sexual, mental, psychological abuse of these hostages who came back is just terrible,” she added. “We have to rewrite the textbook.”

Some 240 hostages were abducted from Israel during Hamas’s October 7 massacre, when some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing people of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.

A weeklong temporary truce in late November saw the terror group release 105 of the hostages abducted during the October 7 onslaught, mostly women and children, and Thai nationals.

At least 138 hostages are still being held captive in Gaza, 18 of them believed to be dead.

The hospital has been treating 14 former hostages held by Hamas, some of whom reported being drugged, including with what doctors believe were benzodiazepines, a class of depressants with a sedative effect that includes drugs like Valium.

Eitan Yahalomi, 12, with his mother in Ichilov hospital on November 27, 2023 after being released by Hamas in a truce agreement. (IDF)

“They wanted to control the kids, and sometimes it’s difficult to control young children, adolescents. And they know that if they drug them they will be quiet,” said Eitan.

“One of the girls was given ketamine for a few weeks,” she continued, referring to a powerful dissociative anesthetic known for giving the recipient a sense of detachment from their environment.

Dr. Renana Eitan (Courtesy)

“It’s unbelievable to do this to a child.”

Eitan said some former hostages had also described psychological torment at the hands of their captors.

One was told his wife was dead when in fact she was still alive back in Israel, while children were separated from their families and shown “brutal videos.”

One patient said she and others were held in total darkness for more than four days.

“They became psychotic, they had hallucinations,” Eitan said.

Yagil Yaakov, 13, holds his mother’s hand on an IDF helicopter after being released from Hamas captivity on November 27, 2023 (Israel Defense Forces)

There were also reports of self-harm among hostages in captivity, she noted, while some returnees had since professed to having suicidal thoughts.

“But this is our mission, to make sure that such things will not happen,” she added.

Ichilov has also treated hundreds of physically wounded patients, both victims of the October 7 atrocities and soldiers injured in the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip.

Soldiers can be airlifted to Ichilov from the battlefield in about 15 minutes, according to vice chief of trauma surgery Eyal Hashavia.

Dissociative states

Some former hostages continue to experience dissociative states, Eitan said: “One minute they know that they are here at Ichilov medical center, and the next they think they are back with Hamas.”

There are plans to create a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment center after the national shock of the October attack.

Eitan said the mental health toll was staggering, with around five percent of Israel’s population — some 400,000 people — expected to suffer some symptoms of PTSD.

The extreme situation puts doctors in a dilemma.

It is considered best practice not to debrief a survivor on their ordeal immediately, but Eitan said there was also an urgent need to know about the condition of other hostages.

“On one hand, we can’t do the debrief, but on the other, we need the information,” she said.

Tomer Zadik, 24, has been receiving treatment at Ichilov since he was shot in the arm when Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova music festival on October 7, murdering over 360 people at the outdoor event.

He described hiding for hours as he listened to the voices of the attackers around him, before managing to escape and reunite with a group of festival-goers and a few soldiers.

Tomer Tzadik, 24, left, who has been receiving treatment since being shot in the arm when Hamas terrorists stormed the Supernova music festival on October 7, gives an interview at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv on December 11, 2023. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

“The atrocities over there, words really can’t describe,” he said, adding that he had nightmares about the attack, though “less and less with time.”

“They wanted to break us, not only physically. They wanted to mentally break the whole nation of Israel,” he said.

“But we won’t break.”

The Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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