Expert: Hamas drugged and used violence against hostages

Renana Eitan, director of the Ichilov Psychiatry Department at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, said she had never seen anything like it in her 20-year career.

“The physical, sexual and psychological abuse of these hostages who have returned is simply horrific,” she said.

“We have to rewrite the textbook,” Eitan added.

This medical center is treating 14 former hostages released by the militant group during a humanitarian ceasefire. Some of them are said to have been drugged with what doctors say is a sedative.

“They wanted to control children, and sometimes it’s difficult to control small children, teenagers. And they know that if they give them medicine, they will be calm,” said R. Eitan.

“One of the girls was given ketamine for several weeks,” she continued, referring to the powerful drug that gives a person a sense of detachment from the environment.

“It is unbelievable to treat a child like this,” said R. Eitan.

She also noted that some of the former hostages spoke of the psychological suffering Hamas had caused them.

One of them said that he was informed of his wife’s death, although in fact she is still alive. Children were also separated from their families and exposed to brutal videos.

One patient said she and the other hostages were kept in complete darkness for more than four days.

“They developed psychosis, they had hallucinations,” said the director of the psychiatric department.

Mr Eitan noted that some of the former hostages had considered harming themselves and some had suicidal thoughts.

“But it’s our mission to make sure things like this don’t happen again,” she added.

Physically injured people are also treated at the Ichilov hospital. These are both residents injured in the militant attack in early October and soldiers wounded in the Gaza Strip.

According to Eyal Hashavija, deputy head of the surgery-traumatology department, soldiers can be transported from the battlefield to the Ichilov hospital in about 15 minutes.

“They wanted to psychologically break the entire nation of Israel”

During the October 7 attack by Hamas, 1.2 thousand people were killed. of the people, another 240 were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

During a week-long humanitarian truce that ended earlier this month, the militant group released 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis, mostly women and children, in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas is believed to still be holding 137 hostages.

The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has reported that at least 18,200 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since the start of the war with Israel. people.

R. Eitan emphasized that former hostages experience dissociative states. One minute they know they’re in Israel, at a medical center, and the next they’re reminiscing about their experiences with Hamas.

In addition, there are plans to establish a post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) treatment center.

R. Eitan emphasized that about 400 thousand people suffer from PTSD symptoms of one kind or another.

Tomer Zadik, 24, is being treated in Ichilov for hand injuries sustained when Hamas fighters stormed the Supernova electronic music festival near the Gaza border.

He said he hid for several hours hearing the voices of the attackers around him before he managed to escape and join the other surviving festival goers and soldiers.

“The atrocities that took place there are truly indescribable,” he said, adding that he still has nightmares about the attack, but that these have lessened over time.

“They wanted to break us not only physically. They wanted to psychologically break the entire nation of Israel,” said T. Zadikas.

“But we will not break,” he added.