An Israeli hostage released from the Gaza Strip praised the great treatment she received from her guards from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), stressing that they were ready to sacrifice their lives to protect her and her three children from Israeli bombing.
During an interview alongside her daughter Agam, Prisoner Chen Goldstein-Almog told an Israeli channel: The guards who captured us in Gaza were protecting us with their bodies from the bombing. They were protecting us from Israeli fire, and we felt very important to them.
She added: When we asked them if they were going to kill us, their response was: We die before you die.
She pointed out that the guards were very close to the hostages, and they did not stay alone for a moment, and that she was afraid that the IDF would come at any moment to try to save them.
In response to a question about how she spent her time during detention, she answered: I was playing with my sons, and my daughter Agam was exercising all the time. One of the guards even had a fistfight with me, but before that, he put a towel on his hand.
When the interviewer asked her why the towel? She responded by saying that they respected women, and to them, women are sacred, and it is not permissible to touch them. To them, women are queens.
The prisoner also spoke about her two young sons, stressing that they were playing and drawing, and the guards even taught them some card games, including “Shaddah”.
It is noteworthy that Hamas and the rest of the resistance factions had released about 50 Israeli prisoners, including women and minors, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons last November under a humanitarian truce agreement.
It’s worth noting that the Hamas movement repeatedly announced the death of many Israeli hostages due to the heavy and indiscriminate Israeli bombing across the Gaza Strip.
