Dr. Einat Yehene, Head of Rehabilitation in the Health Division of the Hostage Families Forum, spoke Sunday morning about returned hostages Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben-Ami, and Or Levy, who arrived in Israel emaciated and in similar states to the Jews who were held in Nazi concentration camps.
"There was a lot of torture in addition - physical and mental torture, that we are not seeing at this moment," she told 103 FM Radio. Dr. Yehene also stressed that "the starvation was intentional."
She also clarified, "We know that they were in locations where there was humanitarian aid. The drastic drop in weight may have harmed their systems, and we know this from the freed hostages who already returned - it can cause heart damage and systems to collapse."
"These are exactly the pictures we were warning about at the start of the deal. The better and more healthy condition that we saw when the women were released - that was not representative."
Regarding Saturday itself, Dr. Yehene admitted, "It was really a very hard day, not just for the families who received their loved ones, but also for the families of hostages still in Gaza, and obviously for the entire public of the State of Israel," she added.