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Family of Freed 12-Year-Old Boy Describes Horrific Abuse of Child Hostages by Hamas, Gazan Civilians
Eitan Yahalomi, 12, walks with his mother at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, after being released from Gaza where he was kept hostage following the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Israel. Photo: Spokesperson unit of Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The aunt of a 12-year-old boy who was released from captivity in Gaza on Monday night has revealed disturbing details of threats and psychological abuse inflicted on her nephew by Hamas terrorists, which included forcing him to watch videos of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7.
In an interview with French TV channel BFM, Eitan Yahalomi’s aunt, Devora Cohen, said, “Whenever a child hostage cried, the terrorists would threaten them with rifles to silence them.”
Yahalomi, a dual Israeli-French citizen, was released on Monday, 52 days after his abduction, as part of a temporary ceasefire and hostage-prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas.
“Perhaps I was naïve, but I wanted to hope that they were treating him well,” said Cohen. “I was wrong. They are monsters.”
For the first 16 days of captivity, Yahalomi was left in solitary confinement in a room underground, his grandmother, Esther Yahalomi, told the Haaretz daily.
After a month he was joined by other child hostages at a different location, which was much easier for him because his kindergarten teacher was also there. But the children were forced to watch the Oct. 7 massacre — in which Hamas-led terrorists murdered over 1,200 people across southern Israel and took more than 240 hostages — on film in silence, and any cries they made resulted in threats at gunpoint.
“The Hamas terrorists forced him to watch films of the horrors, the kind that no one wants to see, they forced him to watch them,” Cohen said.
Yahalomi’s arrival in Gaza was also met with hostility from Palestinian civilians, who subjected the 12-year-old to physical abuse, Cohen said.
“When he arrived in Gaza, all the residents, everyone, beat him. He is a 12-year-old boy,” she said. “We’re talking about a child of 12.”
Yahalomi was initially captured along with his mother and two sisters, but they successfully escaped and returned to Israel, while Eitan was transported into Gaza on a separate moped.
His father, Ohad, who sustained gunshot wounds during a shootout with Hamas terrorists, was also taken captive and remains in Gaza.
Separately, Thomas Hand, the father of 9-year-old Emily Hand who was released by Hamas on Sunday evening, opened up about his daughter’s condition over the last two days.
In an emotional interview with CNN, Hand said Emily was barely audible.
“The most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering. You couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips,” he said. “She’d been conditioned [by her captors] not to make any noise.”
When Hand asked Emily how long she thought she had been in captivity, she said she had been held hostage for an entire year.
“Apart from the whispering, that was a punch in the guts. A year,” Hand said.
Hand added that his daughter cried herself to sleep.
“Last night she cried until her face was red and blotchy; she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want any comfort. I guess she’s forgotten how to be comforted,” he said. “She went under the covers of the bed, the quilt, covered herself up and quietly cried.”
Hamas is making efforts to change its image in light of the widespread awareness of its barbarity. This includes directing released hostages to smile and wave, as observed in videos of the hostages being transferred to Red Cross vehicles, which include audible directives by the masked terrorists to “keep waving.”
Some in the international media seem to have fallen prey to Hamas’ theatrics. Responding to an Israeli report that Yahya Sinwar — the Hamas leader in Gaza and mastermind behind the Oct. 7 massacre — met with Israeli hostages and told them in Hebrew that “nothing would happen” to them, veteran Sky News journalist Dominic Waghorn posted on X/Twitter that it “undermines the Israeli Hamas = ISIS storyline.”
Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar met with the Israeli hostages a day after they were taken in tunnels under Gaza and told them they would not be harmed and would be returned as part of a hostage deal. Undermines the Israeli Hamas = ISIS storyline.
— Dominic Waghorn (@DominicWaghorn) November 28, 2023
Waghorn went on to claim that the hostages were “held in reasonable conditions, reportedly, though those held above ground lived with the fear of being killed in Israel’s bombardment.”
The post Family of Freed 12-Year-Old Boy Describes Horrific Abuse of Child Hostages by Hamas, Gazan Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.