One was held in a Gaza tunnel, deep underground, shackled in darkness for nearly two years.
Another was kept in total isolation, enduring a process of deliberate starvation at the hands of his captors, losing nearly 40% of his body weight.
They were tortured and tormented and in constant peril.
These were some of the gruesome stories emerging from the 20 living hostages released on Monday, two years after Gazan terrorists seized them during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel.
Elkana Bohbot, 36, one of the organizers of the Supernova music festival, now reunited with his wife, Rivka, and 5-year-old son Re'em, was chained in a deep tunnel for nearly two years, losing all sense of time and space.
Over the two years in captivity, he was able to see images of his family at rallies, appealing for his release, his wife recounted.
In the days before his release, his Hamas captors overfed Bohbot, despite clear Israeli warnings that this could prove fatal after prolonged starvation.
"Yesterday was more emotional than our wedding day or even Re'em's birth," Rivka Bohbot said on Tuesday. "I saw them reborn. Elkana couldn't stop hugging Re'em."
Avinatan Or, 32, who was taken hostage from the music festival alongside his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, was held alone for nearly all two years of his captivity. (Argamani was freed in an IDF rescue operation June 7, 2024, along with three other hostages.)
A video of the pair being kidnapped became one of the most well-known pieces of footage from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre. An initial medical examination found that he lost between 30% and 40% of his body weight.
Matan Angrest, 22, an IDF soldier who was kidnapped from his tank during the Oct. 7 attack, was confined in a small dark tunnel for the last four months. His mother, Anat, said that her son underwent "very severe torture" during the first months of his captivity.
"He remembers being beaten so badly that he lost consciousness," she told Israel's Channel 12 News. "They covered him with black sacks and dragged him away."
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, was reunited with fellow hostage Evyatar David, 24, upon their release, having being separated a month ago after enduring daily physical and psychological torture.
The childhood friends were forced to watch a group of hostages get released in February, in a notorious Hamas propaganda video and in an act widely panned as psychological torture.
David, who was subsequently filmed digging his own grave in a separate video showing him skeletally thin, was among the hostages "fattened up" by his captors in the final days of their captivity despite concerns that could prove fatal.
Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 28, who were abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, were held separately and completely cut off from the outside world throughout their time in the Gaza Strip, although they could hear Israeli soldiers near them.
Omri Miran, a 48-year-old father of two, was held in nearly two dozen places in Gaza, above ground and in tunnels, his brother Nadav told Ynet. The shiatsu massage therapist would cook food and played cards with his captors, his brother said.
Hostage survivor Eitan Mor, 25, was also abducted from the music festival. His family refused to take part in the rallies calling for the release of the hostages. His father, Tzvika, said a Hamas leader told him Eitan would be released first since his family was not protesting for him.
This JNS.org report was republished with permission.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.