Bar Kupershtein, one of the hostages recently freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza, shared the horrors he endured during his imprisonment in an interview with Kan 11’s “Real Time” program.
Kupershtein described inhumane conditions, severe food shortages, and repeated abuse by his captors. “There were days when there was simply no food,” he said. “There was a guy whose job was to make sure we weren’t treated too well. We didn’t see them eat, but you could tell they were gaining strength while we were wasting away.”
He recounted a particularly brutal episode following public statements by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir about harsher prison conditions for terrorist inmates. According to Kupershtein, Hamas used those remarks as justification for violent retaliation.
“They came in and just beat us,” he said. “They told us, ‘This is because of Ben Gvir. What he’s doing to our prisoners, you’ll suffer in return.’ They repeated it several times. They lined us up against the wall, hit us, humiliated us. Then they took me to their room, tied my legs to a stick, and beat the soles of my feet. They broke several toes - I couldn’t walk for a month.”
Kupershtein recalled the fear he felt during the ordeal: “I thought they were going to amputate my legs. You think, ‘This is it. It’s over.’ You see your whole life pass before your eyes.”
He also spoke of being interrogated at gunpoint. “They wanted to know who was a soldier and who wasn’t. I told them I had finished my service and worked in security. I managed to confuse them. At that point, I was just trying to survive.”
When asked whether he blamed Minister Ben Gvir, Kupershtein said: “I was angry it reached the media. We were in their hands - how do you give them a reason to abuse us? You’re a government minister. Your job is to protect us.”
In response, Minister Ben Gvir said: “I embrace Bar Kupershtein and all the hostages who returned home, but the Israeli media is adopting Hamas’s narrative. Hamas didn’t need an excuse to murder, rape, and burn babies. These atrocities occurred long before any prison changes - changes which, at the time, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not permit me to implement. Today, even the Shin Bet acknowledges that publicizing the policy led to a decrease in attacks.”