Former Israeli hostage Ada Sagi, 75, who was kidnapped by the Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad group on October 7 last year, said she was detained in both civilian homes and hospitals in and around the city of Khan Younis in Gaza before he was released as part of in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in November 2023.
In an interview that aired Wednesday, Sagi told CBS News partner network BBC News that he was taken by two kidnappers on a motorcycle from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz to Gaza on October 7. He said he was forced to leave his shoes on, and his feet were badly burned by a bicycle exhaust pipe. He said he was sandwiched between two kidnappers on a motorcycle, one of whom had a Kalashnikov.
When he arrived in Gaza, he said he was put in a car and told by his captors that he was from Islamic Jihad, which, like Hamas, has long been designated a terrorist group by Israel and the US. Her captors wanted her to be used in a potential prisoner exchange. Sagi and the other female hostages were taken to the family home where the children had been left, where they were given food and a doctor was brought in to see to it that they were burned, he said.
“Then we started hearing bombs from the Israeli army. I was very scared, because I knew the bombs from the other side, from Nir Oz, but on this side it was very scary. The whole house was shaking,” said Sagi. on the BBC.
The next day, Sagi and the other hostages were moved from the east side of Khan Younis to an apartment in the center of the city.
“You feel that it has been arranged, the whole apartment, for hostages. The owner of the apartment and the two guards are students who need money. I heard them say that 70 shekels (about $19) a day is the money in Gaza,” Sagi said. “From the beginning, the owner of the apartment said: ‘You are like my mother, you are old and I take care of you.’ I can’t believe it, but it’s like that because they gave me medicine for my legs, they tried to keep me healthy, but my legs are not okay and I’m very weak.
Sagi said that on the 49th day of his captivity, he was taken to the southern city of Rafah for an expected prisoner exchange, but there was a delay, so he was taken back to a hospital in Khan Younis where he will spend the night. night.
He said there were “17 people from Nir Oz in some rooms” who were held by the militants in the hospital.
“Those who say that they are not involved – they are involved. They get money from Hamas. Our maids are the same. They get money. And I ask: ‘You say you are not Hamas, you are not (Islamic) Jihad? You take my freedom, and I am here?
“They have no money. So much poverty there,” he told the BBC.
Sagi said the world’s reaction to the war between Israel and Hamas has made him “crazy.”
“Every time, in every war, antisemitism raises its head. But this time, it’s worse,” said Sagi. “The world hates us, and I think they don’t know the truth.”
Sagi says his community has been destroyed.
“It’s like the Holocaust, but in the Holocaust, we didn’t have an army. You didn’t have Israel. Now, we have Israel,” she said.
Sagi said that for years he taught Arabic in schools to promote peace in the region, but his time as a hostage made him believe that the future he envisioned was no longer possible.
“I understand that Hamas does not want. Also, people who believe in peace are afraid of Hamas. There is no chance to do something with them,” he said. “Israel have to do a dealwhat Biden and Bibi said, to end the war, bring back all the hostages alive and dead.”