Channel 13 aired its full interview Thursday evening with Rom Braslavski, a survivor of Hamas captivity, in which he revealed the brutal abuse he endured while being held in the Gaza Strip.
Excerpts from the interview, released on Wednesday, described how Braslavski was stripped, tied up, and starved by his Hamas captors. In the full interview, the 21-year-old clarified that the abuse he suffered was not politically motivated, but rooted in one reason alone: his Jewish identity.
“They tortured me for one reason - because I’m Jewish. That’s why I got everything I got,” he said. “Not because of Ben Gvir, not because of Netanyahu, not anything else - they abused me because I’m Jewish.”
Braslavski was abducted on October 7, 2023, from the Supernova Music Festival, where he was working as a security guard. He was released three weeks ago as part of the latest ceasefire and hostage release deal brokered by the Trump administration.
He described relentless physical and psychological torment, including humiliation, starvation, moments of despair, and sexual abuse.
“From the moment I arrived in Gaza, they took everything - all my clothes. They tied me up. I was shattered, dying, and without food,” he recounted.
According to Braslavski, his captors took pleasure in inflicting pain. “Their goal was to humiliate me, to break my dignity - and that’s exactly what they did. Things even Hitler’s era didn’t see. You just pray for it to end. Every day brought a new hell. Every blow, every night - I told myself: ‘I survived another day in hell.’”
“I prayed to God - please, save me, get me out of this already,” he continued. “You just ask yourself: What the hell is going on here?”
He concluded the interview with chilling words: “I came back from a meeting with the devil.”