New Details Revealed About Hostages Released By Hamas, Including a Russian Citizen Who Escaped Only to Be ‘Recaptured By Gazans’
CNN military correspondent Oren Leibermann spoke to Wolf Blitzer on Monday about some of the new information just revealed regarding the condition and experiences of hostages taken by Hamas from Israel on October 7th.
“Oren 58 hostages have been released by Hamas, at least so far. Tell us what you’re learning about them and about what they went through,” began Blitzer.
“So first, about the breakdown in the numbers. 58, as you point out, we’ve seen so far 40 of them have been Israeli, 18 have been foreign nationals. Of those, 17 Thai, one Filipino,” Liebermann replied, adding:
The biggest issue we have heard from doctors who have treated the freed hostages who have come out has been — severe in some cases — malnutrition. That’s been the biggest physical issue. There is, of course, the mental health question. That is a much more difficult question that will take much longer to deal with and much longer to recover from. Many of those have been in pretty good condition. Stable condition is a word we’ve heard quite a bit. But I want to focus in on two hostages, specifically the first 84-year-old Alma Avraham.
She was brought out in critical condition, because of that malnutrition having lost weight. Her son, in fact, tried to bring her or get the Red Cross to bring her medication into Gaza, but was unable to do so because of the lack of contact between the Red Cross and the hostages over the course of the past 50 days. A doctor with a forum for the families in the hostages said the neglect she faced is something no human should have gone through. She remains in critical condition at the hospital.
We’ll talk about one other hostage specifically that is Roni Krivoi. He is the Israeli-Russian citizen, Hamas released him outside of the framework of this deal. He is, in fact, the only young man to have been released. Not included in the 50 under the agreement. His aunt spoke with Israeli radio and said that the building in which he was being held was actually hit by an Israeli airstrike that allowed him to escape. And he was on his own for four days inside of Gaza. But because he didn’t know where he was and didn’t know how to try to escape from Gaza itself, he was then recaptured by Gazans, according to his aunt, and turned back over to Hamas.
He was released effectively as a favor from Hamas to Russian President Vladimir Putin. So there remain about 198 hostages inside of Gaza, according to the Israeli government. 20 of those are foreign nationals. As of this agreement, only women and children will be released. It was clear to us from officials familiar with the negotiations, the next group that could come under discussion would be elderly men. And then the negotiations can try to get to other men and those who are soldiers, men and women in the Israeli military. The expectation was always that Hamas would demand a far higher price for those. And it’s unclear even if those discussions have begun. As you heard from Mark Regev, senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, first you have to get through today’s release of hostages, and only then can you talk about the next two days. Discussions beyond that haven’t substantively begun as far as we understand.
On Monday, news also broke that the 10-month-old baby being held captive by Hamas would not be released on Monday. “The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee indicates to Sky News that the Bibas family — father Yarden, mother Shiri, 10-month-old baby Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel — will not be released today from Hamas captivity,” reported the Times of Israel, adding:
Adraee explains that the family was taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, and was then transferred to another Palestinian terror faction in Gaza. They are currently being held in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Watch the full clip above via CNN.
