CNN’s Tapper Recounts 85-Year Old Hamas Hostage’s Harrowing Story of Captivity: ‘I Went Through Hell’

CNN’s Jake Tapper reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, where he recounted the story of 85-year old Yocheved Liftshitz who was recently released from Hamas captivity.

Tapper called it “a really chilling account about her really upsetting experience.”

“She spoke earlier today at a hospital in Tel Aviv,” Tapper said. “She was there with her daughter surrounded by news media. She had some really tough comments about warnings ignored by the Netanyahu government and the Israeli Defense Forces before the attack, weeks before the attack.”

Tapper played a recording of Liftshitz speaking through a translator:

I went through hell. We didn’t think, nor knew, we could get into this stage. They rampaged through our kibbutz…It was a painful act. They brought us into a…tunnel. On the way I was lying to the side on a motorbike, legs to one side, body to the other. The Shabaab were hitting me, so they didn’t break my ribs, but it was very painful and made it difficult for me to grieve.

Tapper said Liftschitz described what Dana Bash called “some surprising detail about medical care” that she received.

“She did talk about that,” Tapper said. “And it’s interesting to focus on that, because remember, Hamas, the terrorists of Hamas, went into Israel, and the plan was to take hostages, to kidnap innocent people. The plan was to do that.”

Again, Liftschitz spoke through a translator:

There were guards and a paramedic, and a doctor who took care of that fact that we’d have more or less the same medicine…There, we laid on mattresses. They really took care of the sanitary side so we wouldn’t get sick.

“So, as she talked about the care that she received, keep in mind that these are the same people that burned babies and slaughtered moms in front of their children and on and on,” Tapper said of Hamas. “These were individuals that were meant to be kept as hostages for Hamas’ use as hostages. So that’s important to keep in mind. These are not people who decided to become great humanitarians. It’s just that they wanted these people to be kept separate for their own purposes.”

“It’s part of their strategy,” Bash agreed. It’s part of their manipulative campaign that, as you said, was very, very well orchestrated.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.