Yochaved Lifshitz, an Israeli prisoner who was freed by Hamas, discusses her experience and the reason she shook her captor's hand.


One of the two elderly captives freed by Hamas on Monday, Yochaved Lifshitz, told reporters on Tuesday that she had been put through "hell" and had been assaulted the day she was taken prisoner, but that she had been treated well while being held captive because she shook the militant's hand when she was returned.


Lifshitz and her 83-year-old husband Oded were kidnapped from their kibbutz home in Nir Oz, close to the Gaza Strip, but Lifshitz insisted that she was not taken captive with Oded, who was still missing on Tuesday. 



Late on Monday, Hamas claimed that it had released Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, due to their poor health.After its spectacular October 7 rampage across southern Israel, the Palestinian group, which has long been designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and many other countries, is still holding more than 200 hostages. 


According to Israeli authorities, the organization killed over 1,400 people during the initial siege and continued rocket strikes from Gaza. Health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza reported Tuesday that more over 5,700 Palestinians had been killed by Israel's bombings, although Israel rejects that figure.


Lifshitz and her husband have both worked with a local group that assists in transporting injured Palestinians to nearby hospitals, according to her family. They are both seasoned human rights activists. Video of the moment she was handed over from her Hamas kidnappers on Monday shows her shaking hands with one of the militants and saying, "shalom," a customary Hebrew greeting meaning "peace."




Lifshitz spoke of how Hamas militants "stormed, beat, and kidnapped without distinction" during a news conference on Tuesday with her daughter Sharone.