Home > Blog > Israel > Israeli Hostages’ Lives at Critical Tipping Point. They Must Be Brought Home Now
By Joyce Winslow
Hanging in precarious balance after President Trump’s announcement to “own Gaza” are the remaining 76 Israeli hostages, 35 known dead, and the rest thought to be alive, but barely. “Five hundred days in captivity leaves them with little bodily reserves, warns retired IDF Col. Dr. Amir Blumenfeld, former chief of combat medicine. Based on what released hostages have told him and members of the health teams that treats hostages and their family members, he believes the remaining hostages cannot survive long.
“Behind the hugs and reunions of returned hostages we’ve seen a complex story of trauma, pain, and survival,” he says. “In searching medical history for treatment options we found no similar catastrophic event in modern history that mirrors October 7, unique in many aspects. First, hostages were traumatized by seeing the massacre of family members and friends. Taken into dark, dank tunnels, their significant injuries were treated poorly, lesser injuries including shrapnel wounds treated not at all.”
New information gleaned from 107 hostages previously released, or rescued from the 251 taken at the start. reveals what they endured: some were kept in cages, others tied up, or forced to stay put in small spaces for months. Capturers broke eyeglasses and removed hearing aids. Lacking exercise, joints stiffened, muscles atrophied. Given no choices, no agency whatsoever, hostages were told when they could go to the bathroom, given little food, and begged to drink water. Many were abused physically, some sexually, and commanded to never cry, and to not talk.
Dr. Merav Roth, a psychologist treating released hostages, says: “children returned to Israel early on still whisper.”
Adults said they were unable to tell day from night in dark tunnels. “Deprived of natural light and sensory stimulation for months, memory wavers,” Dr. Roth says. “People hallucinate. Taken beneath combat zones and held there, they lived second to second, every second like an eternity, any second possibly their last. The sense of emergency and rush of adrenalin clashed with capturers’ orders to stay silent and submissive.”
“Jangling anxiety plus nutritional deficits break down the immune system,” Dr. Blumenfeld says. “Hostages got no drugs for serious heart or other diseases. No drugs for common infections or diarrhea; no soap. They got lice that thrive in an absence of hygiene.” Many hostages said they were not permitted to bathe or wash for months.
“Loss of control over your life impacts your sense of identity,” says Dr. Roth. “Before October 7 hostages had jobs, and hobbies, and family responsibilities. Piecing time into various functions is what gives us a sense of identity. With no control over managing time, identity melts. Life doesn’t simply resume upon release after six or ten or thirteen months of captivity. None of the women released a year ago has yet been able to resume her former job. Years of therapy will be necessary.”
Some released hostages suffered enormous trauma upon hearing that family members were murdered. “One woman in captivity kept herself alive for the day she could again embrace her husband,” says Dr. Roth. “Upon learning he had been killed, she went silent, disassociated, a defense mechanism against total breakdown. Another woman unable to express joy upon reunion with her daughters could say only: ‘I have shock in my mouth.’”
Dr. Roth introduces therapy at the very moment of hostage release. “We tell our soldiers not to hold the hands of hostages they take from capturers. We suggest they ask hostages for permission to take their hands. At the outset we begin to re-teach choice.”
Hardest to re-establish is trust. “Our patients act passive and compliant, but inside there is no trust. Only a gaping void, the black hole of feeling no longer human or part of anything,” Dr. Roth says.
“After months of being deprived of all control over their lives, released hostages have to regain autonomy within a new reality,” says Dr. Blumenfeld. “It’s a gradual, delicate, and complex process. We must let each of them pass through stages at their own pace, respecting their choices to share or withdraw, engage or seclude, to speak up or remain silent. The long journey of healing also becomes an individual process for each family member. It demands from our treatment teams, and extended family members, and society as a whole, our endless patience and deep sensitivity. ”
Israeli society as a whole is suffering, adds Dr. Roth. “Israel became a state after the Holocaust vowing ‘never again,’ yet again we are reeling from massacre.”
“Our nation cannot grieve a final grief and begin healing until all remaining hostages are returned,” says Dr. Blumenfeld. The precarious balance of the remaining hostages lives is at a dangerous tipping point. Washington Hebrew Congregation has joined with others to demand that Presidents Trump and Netanyahu bring all hostages home now. Now, before it is too late.
Hostages returned cannot endure the thought of others still suffering.
Our ability to influence Israeli policies renews this March when diaspora Jewish delegates are voted into the World Zionist Congress, a non-governmental body established by Theodore Herzl. The 525 delegates from around the world decide how to spend the WZC’s $1.1 billion budget. The election of delegates, which takes place every five years, begins this March and gives Reform and Conservative American Jews an opportunity to vote in delegates committed to a democratic Israel that includes women on the pulpit and recognizes LGBTQ rights. A fierce campaign for far-right delegates now being waged by Haredi and the orthodox communities in the U.S. means that Jews wishing a more progressive agenda need to cast their votes.
We advocate VOTE REFORM. Under its banner stand potential delegates that include Rabbis Susan Shankman and Rachel Schmelkin of Washington Hebrew Congregation, former WHC president David Astrove, and 2239 Steering Committee Member Rachel Erlebacher. To make your voice heard pledge to vote this March. More information at www.arza.org , the American Reform Zionist Association
