Ex-captive says Israeli strikes greatest fear while in Gaza
A former Israeli soldier captive says her greatest fear during the time when she was held by resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip was the regime’s aerial assaults on the besieged Palestinian territory.
Naama Levy made the remarks in an address to an anti-regime protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
“They (Israeli airstrikes) come by surprise,” she said. “First you hear a whistle, pray it doesn’t fall on you, and then — the booms, a noise loud enough to paralyze you, the earth shakes.”
“I was convinced every single time that this was my end,” Levy added, noting that Israeli captives “have nowhere to run, just pray and cling to the wall in a horrible feeling of powerlessness.”
She also said that there were entire days without food and little water and that once she drank rainwater.
Levy was taken into captivity from the Nahal Oz base along with several other female surveillance soldiers of the Israeli military. She was released in January as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas resistance group.
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
In its operation, Hamas took 251 Israelis captive, 58 of whom now remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the occupation’s army and 20 believed to be alive. Several of the captives have been killed in the regime’s air raids on the blockaded territory.
More than 19 months into its brutal onslaught on Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives despite killing at least 53,901 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 122,593 others.
Also on Saturday, similar anti-regime protests took place across the occupied territories, with the participants banging drums, lighting flares, and chanting slogans.
Before the demonstrations, a group of captives’ families held their weekly press conference in Tel Aviv, blasting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for expanding the aggression against Gaza for the sake of his own political interests.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held in Gaza, said Netanyahu prefers “an eternal, politically motivated war” over the return of those taken captive on his watch.
Instead of reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Netanyahu’s regime keeps “sending our troops to the front, to create settlements on the backs of our” captives, she pointed out.
“Tell me, Mr. prime minister: How do you sleep at night knowing you’re abandoning 58 hostages? Instead of … ending this war …, you continue it.”
