Ex-Hamas captive urges end to war, freedom for hostages
A year after her release from Hamas captivity, Mexican-Israeli Ilana Gritzewsky calls for international pressure to secure the release of 101 hostages still held in Gaza.
Gritzewsky’s voice trembles as she recounts her ordeal of being kidnapped by Hamas and held captive in Gaza’s tunnels.
Despite the trauma, she speaks out to remind the world. “101 hostages remain in grave danger. Every second that passes puts their lives at risk.”
The 30-year-old, who holds dual Mexican and Israeli citizenship, was abducted with her boyfriend, Matan Zanguaker, during the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed over 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage.
After enduring 55 harrowing days in captivity, Gritzewsky was freed under a truce between Israel and Hamas. However, her boyfriend and many friends from her kibbutz, where one in four residents were killed or abducted, remain in captivity.
“I raise my voice for my boyfriend, my friends, and all the innocent civilians still with the terrorists,” Gritzewsky said in an interview with EFE during her visit to Madrid. She was in the Spanish capital ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
“My people want the war to end in exchange for the return of the hostages.”
A Personal Plea She said she was not willing to leave without seeing her boyfriend. “I knew that if I left, my body would leave, but my soul would remain there with him and my friends.”
Gritzewsky admits she never imagined the nightmare of her boyfriend’s prolonged captivity. The day of her release brought little solace. “I knew he was in the same tunnels as me, but I was never allowed to see him,” she recalled.
Her release, she said, was a decision entirely controlled by her captors. “For them, you are a puppet. They use you as they wish,” she said, describing the helplessness of her ordeal.
Gritzewsky delivers her message for all to hear. “Civilians and politicians alike, because they are all people,” she says, emphasizing that everyone needs to understand the suffering of the hostages.
“My people want this war to end entirely in exchange for the release of all 101 hostages,” she says, before making it clear that she does not wish to discuss politics.
Harrowing Captivity Gritzewsky’s account of her abduction and captivity is harrowing, each memory a wound she bravely opens to make the world understand the horrors she endured.
She vividly remembers the moment her nightmare began, when she was paralyzed with dread when the militants stormed into her home.
She described the brutal day of her abduction: dragged by her hair onto a motorcycle and taken to Gaza “as a trophy.” She arrived with a broken hip, a shattered jaw, burns on her legs, and hearing loss in one ear.
Even today, she walks with a limp and has been told she will never fully regain mobility.
Her initial days in captivity were marked by relentless beatings, humiliation, and terror. Later confined to Gaza’s tunnels, she endured darkness, filth, and the constant fear of being buried alive.
In captivity, she lost 12 kilograms, fainted daily from exhaustion, and never received medical care. “What I endured for 55 days, I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she says.
Source » efe.com
