2023-11-29 16:49:39
Roni Krivoy, 25, was released on November 26 after spending 50 days as a Hamas hostage in Gaza. Because of his age, he was not among those eligible for the exchange with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, but his dual Russian-Israeli citizenship worked in his favor. Surprisingly, the Palestinian Islamist group let him go as a gesture of recognition to President Vladimir Putin and “the Russian position of support for the Palestinian cause.”
After his release, he recounted details of his captivity that seem straight out of a movie: He said he briefly escaped to hide in the ruins of Gaza before being caught by civilians.
LOOK: What have the Hamas hostages said?: they ate bread and rice, slept in chairs and waited hours to go to the bathroom
Roni Krivoy was kidnapped while working as a sound engineer at the massive Nova Festival, which was attacked by Hamas on October 7.
His job was to dismantle the stage and other equipment.
Hundreds of people flee through the desert from the Hamas attack on an electronic music festival in Israel. (Video capture).
According to Israel, Hamas killed 364 people at that festival, which took place near the border with Gaza. It was one of the first places he attacked.
Images released by the young people themselves showed how at dawn on October 7, members of Hamas approached the festival flying on paragliders, then they did so in trucks and motorcycles, to the confusion of the crowd that tried to escape in the midst of the confusion.
An armed Palestinian militant walks past an electronic music party near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev Desert on October 7. (AFP).
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According to his family, Roni Krivoy hid in some bushes, but was found by Hamas militants and taken to Gaza.
Roni was escaping from the terrorists with a friend. They were separated when the Russian-Israeli decided to go into hiding. The friend stayed in contact with him until 10:30 in the morning, when Roni told him that he could hear the attackers’ voices. At 10:40, the friend called again, but someone answered in Arabic, he heard laughter, and they hung up. From there the connection was completely cut off.
That October 7, according to figures from the Israeli Government, the Islamists took about 240 people hostage. While the total number of deaths in the south of Israeli territory rose to 1,200.
In Gaza, subjected to incessant bombardments
Already in an Israeli ground operation since October 27, 14,854 people have died, including 6,150 children under 18, according to the Hamas-ruled Ministry of Health.
After his release, Roni’s aunt, Yelena Magid, told the Israeli press that she had a half-hour conversation with her nephew where he told her details of his captivity and how he escaped for a few days.
An International Red Cross vehicle carrying Russian-Israeli hostage Roni Krivoy released by Hamas heads towards the Rafah border point, November 26, 2023. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP).
/ MOHAMMED ABED
Magid revealed that Roni was being held in a building in Gaza by his captors. But this building collapsed due to Israeli bombings. Several Hamas Islamists were killed in that action, he said.
Krivoy suffered a head injury during the building collapse.
“After the building collapsed, Roni managed to escape and for four days he was alone and hidden. He tried to flee and reach the border, but with no means of knowing where he was, he did not succeed… In the end, the Gazans captured him and took him back into the hands of the terrorists,” he explained.
“He tried to get to the border. But he did not have the ability to understand where she was or where he had to go, so he could not advance in the open field. He was completely alone,” Magid continued.
“I asked him, ‘How do you feel? Do you have nightmares? He replied: ‘Yes, I have nightmares from the party and the captivity, but that’s good, it means I’m handling it well.’”
Roni Krivoy with her parents.
When Magid was asked how Russian citizenship helped Roni, she responded: “Ron’s family emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1992, and he was born in Israel in 1998 and grew up here. His native language is Hebrew, his native land is Israel. His parents had lived in St. Petersburg and Ron was given Russian citizenship when he was little. He is an Israeli citizen, and I believe that this division that was highlighted in the media – that of “13 kidnapped and one more” – is inappropriate, it hurts us, the citizens of Israel. We have been living in the country for more than 30 years, almost all our lives, our children were born and raised here.”
Kriboy’s cousin, Alex Magid, gave a similar account Monday in an interview with Israel Army Radio.
The boy who “lived horrors” during his captivity
This Tuesday, the release of Hamas hostages in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons is scheduled to continue, something that has already taken place during the last four days, in which 69 Israeli and foreign hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners were released.
Israel has kept the freed hostages away from the media, arguing that the priority is their physical and emotional recovery.
Their families are the ones who are telling details of the captivity.
Former French-Israeli hostage Eitan Yahalomi, 12, reunited with his mother after his release by Hamas. (AFP).
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This is the case of Deborah Cohen, aunt of the French-Israeli teenager Eitan Yahalomi, 12, who was released on Monday, who told the French network BFMTV what her nephew described to her about his captivity.
“Eitan experienced horrors there… Some civilians beat him when he arrived in Gaza, even though he is a 12-year-old boy,” said the aunt.
He added that “Hamas forced him to watch” the crimes they committed and recorded on October 7 on Israeli soil.
“Every time a child cried, they threatened him with a gun to keep him quiet,” Cohen continued.
“I expected them to treat him well. But apparently it wasn’t like that. They are monsters,” she said.
Deborah Cohen recalled that Eitan’s father is still in the hands of Hamas.
The age of the Hamas hostages. (AFP).
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