Hostages were choked, hung from the ceiling and starved by Hamas, freed captives claim

The Israeli hostages released on Saturday endured severe torture while in captivity, including physical and psychological abuse, according to Israeli media reports.

Ohad Ben-Ami, 56, Or Levy, 34, and Eli Sharabi, 52, told outlets that they had been subjected to extreme physical mistreatment while being interrogated separately by their captors. The trio were hung upside down from the ceiling, burned with a heated object, and gagged with cloth to the point of suffocation, reported Haaretz

The former hostages added that they were deliberately starved and given only a rotten pita bread every few days, which they were forced to share with other captives, while sometimes going without water for days.

Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on February 8, 2025. (Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

One of the trio reportedly collapsed while in captivity, leading his fellow captives to worry that he was dead.

Speaking anonymously, one of the group described being trapped in chains for 15 months. "I was shackled inside a dark tunnel, with no air or light. I couldn't walk or stand, and only before my release did my captors remove the chains, forcing me to learn to walk again," he told his family, per Channel 12.

Hamas operatives would apparently taunt the hostages by eating in front of them and denying them food. Sometimes the captives were forced to choose which hostage would eat that day. Bathing was allowed once every few months. They were forced to stay barefoot and became unable to distinguish between night and day.

Captors also showed the abductees statements from Israeli politicians and reports of efforts to squander the ceasefire deal that led to their release as a method of psychological torture, according to Channel 13. The hostages were taunted with phrases such as, "They don't want to free you" or "This is how they treat you”.

Levy, who was abducted from the Nova festival on October 7, asked for another hostage to be freed in his stead on the day of his release, according to Channel 12.

Hamas escort Israeli hostage Or Levy on a stage before his release on February 8, 2025, as part of the fifth hostage-prisoner exchange of a fragile ceasefire. (Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Einav, Levy’s wife, was killed during the October 7 attack but he only learned the tragic news when he arrived at Sheba Hospital upon his release. “He did not know. He assumed, and asked, and we told him,” his mother, Geula, told Kan 11 News.

Levy recounted how Hamas frequently made him believe that he was about to be released, despite him ultimately remaining in Gaza captivity for 491 days.

Levy, Ben-Ami, and Sharabi were told they’d be released 10 days prior to their return to Israel, according to Channel 12. The captives were then given more food than normal in the days leading up to their freedom, reported Channel 13.

Meanwhile, the family of Alon Ohel, who turned 24 in captivity today, revealed on Sunday that they had received the first sign of life from him in 15 months. 

Ohel, who was abducted from a bomb shelter alongside Levy, Eliya Cohen, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was recovered in August, "has been held in tunnels in Gaza alongside hostages who were recently released”, according to a Hostages and Families Forum statement.

“He has shrapnel in his eye, he has shrapnel in his shoulder, he has shrapnel in his arm. Alon was bound in chains, this entire time, and he had almost no food — at most one pita a day, over a very, very, very long time, more than a year,” his anguished mother, Idit Ohel, told Channel 12.

Ella Ben-Ami, the daughter of Ohad Ben-Ami, said nothing could have prepared her for seeing her father's condition over the weekend.

Ohad Ben Ami on the Hamas stage (Photo: X)[Missing Credit]

“What you all saw yesterday on TV, the difficult sight that makes you want to throw the TV to the ground, that's my father. He endured horrors. We haven't even begun to hear in-depth about the hell he was in,” she said, reported Haaretz. "My father survived as a hero and returned with his head held high.”

Ben-Ami was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 2023 alongside Sharabi, whose British-born wife Lianne and their two teenage daughters were killed on October 7. His kidnapped brother, Yossi Sharabi , died in captivity.

Like Levy, Sharabi reportedly only discovered that his family had been murdered after he returned to Israel, having expressed his excitement to see them again during the latest Hamas-organised handover ceremony.