Efrat Machikawa, the niece of freed Israeli hostage Gadi Moses, told Newsmax on Tuesday that her family is still holding on to hope for those who remain in captivity as Israel observes the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion.
"We are waiting," Machikawa told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "We want this hope also for the deceased, the families of the deceased, and the living, and we are really, truly grateful for President [Donald] Trump's initiative."
Moses, 80, was one of six members of Machikawa's family who were kidnapped during the attacks, and he was released after 482 days in captivity.
His partner was murdered, and four female relatives were eventually freed.
Machikawa said that it was "unreal" when her uncle was released.
"The moment that we waited for was coming, and we still couldn't believe this was really happening," she said. "It took me a few months after hugging him for the first time to actually realize that he is with us. It is a very, very happy but yet very worrying moment."
She said her uncle continues to struggle with the trauma of his captivity, and that he says he will "not be fully freed" until all hostages are home.
Machikawa recalled the first words Moses whispered after his release.
"I was hugging him. I was just so happy that moment. And by the way, you know what he whispered in my ear?" she said. "He said, 'I'm OK. I'm normal.' Because he knew that what we were so afraid of was the torture that he went through. And indeed he was."
She detailed the grim conditions he endured, including lies told by his captors.
"The most terrible thing for an 80-year-old in captivity was the loneliness. He had no one to talk to. He was disconnected from the world," she said.
The captors also tried to frighten Moses with "terrible lies," Machikawa added. "On the birthday of his partner, he asked to send her a text, 'Happy birthday, I love you.' They let him, and later told him she loved him back."
But months later, Moses learned that his partner had been killed, and "then he knew they lied and they lied all over again," she said.
Beyond the emotional toll, Moses was deprived of medicine for his chronic illnesses and forced to live in degrading conditions.
"For him, as a very elderly man, to go down on the floor to sleep on the floor, to be surrounded by militants with full of equipped weapons, not to have proper medicine to his chronic diseases, it was hell," said Machikawa.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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