Israeli Hostages’ Accounts of Abuse Raise Alarms for Remaining Captives

Bound. Starved. Wounded. Tortured. These are the conditions that some hostages being held in Gaza still face, according to information their families said they had received from Israeli military and security officials after Hamas released three captives on Saturday as part of a cease-fire agreement.

The emaciated appearance of three hostages released in a ceremony in Gaza staged by Hamas last weekend — Eli Sharabi, 52; Or Levy, 34; and Ohad Ben-Ami, 56 — and the details of their captivity have relatives of the remaining captives sounding the alarm about the urgent need for the continuation of the phased cease-fire deal. The urgency comes as the militant group said on Monday it would indefinitely postpone the next hostage releases, set for Saturday, citing Israeli cease-fire violations.

Before they were handed over to Red Cross officials in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, the frail, painfully thin hostages were paraded onstage before a crowd in the city of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, each holding a Hamas-issued “release certificate,” and made to recite words written for them — including thanks to the militants who had held them for 16 months.

A doctor in charge of overseeing the treatment of two of the freed Israeli hostages later said they were in poor condition. The third was in a “severe nutritional state,” according to an official at the hospital where he was being treated.

Hamas has said it treats its captives benevolently.

Under the first phases of the cease-fire deal, the armed Palestinian group agreed to free 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight who were killed, in exchange for about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners. So far, about half of those exchanges have been carried out.

Hamas on Saturday denounced “the brutal treatment of our prisoners” by Israeli officials. “This includes ongoing assaults, torture, and disregard for age or the severe health conditions suffered by many prisoners,” it said in a statement, highlighting what it said was the difference in treatment between the hostages and the prisoners.