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Israel-Hamas War News: U.S. Strikes More Targets in Yemen as Houthis Threaten to Keep Up Attacks

Hila Rotem Shoshani had invited her good friend Emily Hand over for a sleepover in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel. The girls, then 12 and 8, woke early the subsequent morning, Oct. 7, to the sound of thundering booms — the start of the deadliest assault in the historical past of their nation.

For about six hours, Hila and Emily hid in the house’s protected room with Hila’s mom, Raaya Rotem, 54, as Hamas attackers overran the kibbutz. Then armed gunmen burst in with weapons and knives and took the three out right into a panorama of horror, previous useless our bodies and burning buildings, to a automotive. One of the attackers seen Hila clutching a stuffed animal. He grabbed it and tossed it apart.

“I had it in my hand the entire time. I didn’t notice,” Hila stated on Friday in an interview in New York, earlier than she spoke at a rally in assist of the remaining hostages. “When you’re afraid you don’t notice.”

Hila was considered one of greater than 30 youngsters kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, and held till late November, after they, together with dozens of adults, had been launched throughout a quick truce. Hila, now 13, is the youngest of the returned hostages to communicate out concerning the harsh situations in which they had been held, searching for to spotlight the plight of greater than 100 hostages who stay in Gaza.

The terrifying drive to Gaza, surrounded by Hamas terrorists, was the primary time, Hila stated, that she absolutely realized how “really close” the territory was to the group she had grown up in.

She stated she, her mom and Emily had been taken to a house in Gaza, the place they had been put in a darkish room with a few different hostages. At first, an armed guard stayed in the room, however finally moved to the lounge.

“They understood we’re not going to run away,” Hila stated. “Outside it’s dangerous too — why would we run?”

They had been warned not to strive to escape, Hila stated, advised that “if we go outside ‘the people out there don’t like you, so you’ll be killed anyway.’”

Their captors gave them little food — half a pita and a little bit of halva on some days, canned beans on others — and little or no water, usually properly water so distasteful, Hila stated, that she had to power herself to drink.

At occasions, the captors ate whereas the captives didn’t, she stated: “There were days when there just wasn’t food, and they would keep it for themselves.”

Occasionally, Hila stated, they heard different youngsters’s voices, and puzzled in the event that they had been elsewhere in the house. They had to request permission to use the toilet, and Hila realized the Arabic phrase for it, hammam.

Once, an explosion close by prompted the window of their room to break, Hila stated, however they escaped damage.

A couple of occasions, she recounted, they had been woken in the midnight and unexpectedly moved in the darkness.

“They told us at first, ‘you’re moving to a safer place,’ ” Hila stated. “But we didn’t know if we would be killed.”

The girls had been advised to preserve quiet. Emily turned 9, and Hila’s personal birthday was nearing. They tried to preserve themselves occupied, with drawing or video games.

“We played cards, but how much can you play cards, all day, every hour?” Hila stated.

Freedom got here immediately, she stated.

About a month and a half into their captivity, the captors immediately separated the girls from Hila’s mom.

“Mom had started to be scared that something wasn’t OK, that they weren’t taking her,” Hila stated, including, “and then they just came and took us, and she stayed.”

The girls had been then launched and returned to Israel. The separation of mom and youngster violated the phrases of the trade deal, drawing outrage in Israel. Raaya was finally launched a number of days later, simply after Hila’s 13th birthday.


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