Freed hostage Hagar Brodutch recounted to Kan News her ordeal in Hamas captivity along with her children.
“It was a horror movie. The fields of Kfar Azza were full of Gazans in every direction. We drove wildly, in my car, into Gaza. As we were brought in, the crowds in the street all cheered, they pulled my hair, they scratched me. The terrorist was holding Ofri, a girl not 10 years old, the whole time, and showing the crowd what he had captured.”
She claims that while her children went hungry, the terrorists ate well. “We were given one pita with zatar each per day. They made eggs for themselves. My children were going mad from the smell. Even a cup of tea that they made for themselves, when you are dying of hunger, can make a child of four, eight, or ten become completely deranged from the smell.”
“There are still 136 hostages in Gaza. I am sure that what they are experiencing now is far worse than what I went through with my children. I have no doubt of this. The winter is here already, and the cold and hunger that pervade the area will be much worse, specifically for the elderly and injured there. I, as someone who was there, cannot imagine what they are feeling now.”
Brodutch testified that she was held captive along with other hostages, some of whom she knew personally, and added that some of them were injured when she saw them.
She also stated that while she had not actually witnessed sexual assaults on the hostages, she was sure that they had taken place.
Brodutch, 39, and her children Ofri (10), Yuval (8), and Uriyah (4), were captured from Kfar Azza. They have been reunited with her husband, Avichai, who waited for their return. Avigail Idan (4) was both captured and released with them, having fled to their home when her parents were murdered on October 7th.