Elderly Israeli hostage shakes hands with Hamas member, greets him with 'Shalom'
Yocheved Lifshitz greets a Hamas member with a 'Shalom' at undisclosed location in Gaza.
A video of an elderly Israeli hostage shaking hands with a masked Hamas operative and greeting him with Shalom (peace) has gone viral on social media platforms.
Late on Monday, two elderly hostages were airlifted to an Israeli hospital to be reunited with the families on Tuesday, as the United States demanded Hamas release more than 200 other captives before Gaza ceasefire talks are considered.
The elderly women arrived late on Monday at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
The video showed masked Hamas operatives carefully handing over the elderly ladies to Red Cross members.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, shook hands with Red Cross members then turned back and shook hands with a Hamas member, saying “Shalom.”
The video also showed Hamas members giving hot beverages to the women before escorting them to the Red Cross members.
“Each person had a guard watching him or her. They took care of all the needs. They talked about all kinds of things, they were very friendly," Yocheved Lifshitz told the media.
Lifshitz said that she had been manhandled by Hamas operatives as she was taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave.
The 85-year-old was one of two women freed late on Monday, leaving around 220 hostages still in the hands of Hamas.
"I've been through hell, we didn't think or know we would get to this situation," she told reporters, seated in a wheelchair outside the Tel Aviv hospital where she was taken following her release.
Lifshitz said she had been put on a motorbike and driven from her kibbutz into nearby Gaza.
"When I was on the bike, my head was on one side and the rest of my body on the other side. Once in Gaza, she said her captors took her into tunnels that she compared to a spider's web, and treated her well.
Lifshitz said a doctor had visited her and made sure she and other hostages received the same sort of medicines they had been taking in Israel.
She said the Israeli military had not taken the threat of Hamas seriously enough, and that the costly security fence meant to keep militants out "didn't help at all".
The video has highlighted the Hamas claims of treatment of hostages with dignity again, quashing some media outlets’ brutal representation of the group.
Some social media users have shared the video showing how Hamas treats captives and how the Israeli soldiers treat Palestinians.
Israel increased the number of hostages it has confirmed to 222 people when Hamas crossed the border and attacked kibbutz communities, towns and military bases in southern Israel earlier this month.
Some 1,400 people were killed in the worst attack ever to hit Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel launched an immediate war on Hamas and more than 6,000 Palestinians have since been killed in its air attacks on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
