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‘I Was a Prize’: Former Hamas Hostages Share Details of Humiliation in Captivity
FILE PHOTO: A dinner table is set with empty chairs that symbolically represent hostages and missing people with families that are waiting for them to come home, following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel October 20, 2023. REUTERS/Janis Laizans/File Photo
i24 News – The weekend’s stormy weather did not deter a demonstration held at “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv by the families of Israelis who were abducted or have been missing since October 7.
The gathered crowd heard the emotional testimony of one family members of those who are being held in Gaza, as well as one former hostage, Sharon Aloni Cunio. Sharon was released after 55 days in captivity, along with her 3-year-old twins Yuly and Ema, while her husband and brother-in-law are still being held in Gaza.
“On the way to captivity, we saw things that still haunt me at night and in the middle of the day. Sights that are burned into my memory,” Sharon told the crowd. She says her young daughters are still unable to express what they went through, and will likely reveal the effects of the trauma as they grow older.
Also on Saturday, two former hostages released video testimonies of their experiences. Sapir Cohen, 29, who along with Sharon was part of the last group of Hamas hostages to be released during the week-long truce in November. For 55 days, she sat in captivity in Gaza. She was kidnapped alongside her partner Sasha, who remains trapped in the Strip.
On Saturday night, she put out a public message about her ordeal, addressing the video in particular to her beloved partner.
“I’m terrified by what he’s going through over there,” she says in the video, “Because all the strong men, they’re the weak ones there. They’re the ones who suffer the most agony.”
She holds up her hands, showing off her nails with the letters of Sasha’s name painted across 3 of her fingers. Sapir fears that with every day that passes, more hostages could be dying as a result of the dire conditions of captivity. “They simply can’t keep living like this,” she pleads.
Moran Stella Yanai, 40, was also released as part of the hostage deal, and revealed details of her traumatic ordeal.
“I was a prize,” she began. “They brought people from the outside to see me, so they could see what they managed to catch,” Moran shared.
Despite the humiliation she endured, Moran says she was determined to win over her captors in order to improve her conditions, revealing that she managed to get her hands on a pack of cards. “I had one goal. I will make them like me, so I can get food, so I can get water.”
Moran recounted one particular example of how she was degraded, saying that when she said she was hungry, her kidnapper taunted her and forced her to beg for food. She says that another of her captors demanded eye contact. “When he was angry at me, he wanted me to look at him closely all the time, so I remember his face really really really well.”
“‘Really look into my eyes’,” she says he demanded. “‘Look. Shut your mouth and go to sleep.’ And then you go to sleep and have nightmares about him.”
Throughout her 54 days in captivity, Moran says that every morning she would wake up and be grateful she was still alive, and no matter what she went through over the course of the day, she would repeat her thank you every night before going to sleep. “That’s the only thing that kept me going,” she recounted through tears.
The post ‘I Was a Prize’: Former Hamas Hostages Share Details of Humiliation in Captivity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears
The Telegram logo is seen on a screen of a smartphone in this picture illustration taken April 13, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin.
Authorities in two Russian regions have blocked the Telegram messenger because of concerns that the app could be used by enemies, a regional digital development minister was quoted as saying by the TASS state news agency on Saturday.
Dagestan and Chechnya are mainly Muslim regions in southern Russia where intelligence services have registered an increase in militant Islamist activity.
“It (Telegram) is often used by enemies, an example of which is the riots at the Makhachkala airport,” said Yuri Gamzatov, Dagestan’s digital development minister, adding that the decision to block the messenger had been made at the federal level.
Gamzatov was referring to an anti-Israel riot in Dagestan in October 2023, when hundreds of protesters stormed an airport to try to attack passengers arriving on a plane from the Jewish state. No passengers were injured, and authorities have prosecuted several people over the incident.
News of the plane’s arrival had spread on local Telegram channels, where users posted calls for antisemitic violence. Telegram condemned the attack and said it would block the channels.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the blocks in Russia.
Based in Dubai and founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, the messenger has nearly 1 billion users and is used widely in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Moscow tried but failed to block Telegram in 2018 and has in the past demanded the platform hand over user data. Durov is under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organized crime on the app.
Gamzatov, the minister in Dagestan, said Telegram could be unblocked in the future, but encouraged users to switch to other messengers in the meantime.
The post Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, in Washington, DC, Feb. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action said it caused the damage, posting on social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland said it was investigating.
“Around 4.40am on Saturday, 8 March, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said, adding that enquiries were ongoing.
Separately on Saturday, a man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.
The post Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled
A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: Mary Altaffer/Pool via REUTERS
Columbia University’s interim president said the school is working to address the “legitimate concerns” of US President Donald Trump’s administration after $400 million of federal government grants and contracts to the university were canceled over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
In an announcement on Friday, the government cited what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s New York City campus as the reason for pulling the funding. The university has repeatedly been at the forefront of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.
“I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns,” Katrina Armstrong, the university’s interim president, said in a late-night message to alumni on Friday. “To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combating antisemitism on our campus.”
The Trump administration said the canceled funding is only a portion of the $5 billion in government grants that has been committed to the school, but the school is bracing for a financial hit.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” Armstrong said.
Federal funding accounted for about $1.3 billion of the university’s $6.6 billion in operating revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a Columbia financial report.
Some Jewish students and staff have been among the pro-Palestinian protesters, and they say their criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism. Minouche Shafik resigned last year as Columbia’s president after the university’s handling of the protests drew criticism from pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides alike.
The administration has declined to say what contracts and grants it has canceled, but the Education Department argues the demonstrations have been unlawful and deprive Jewish students of learning opportunities.
Civil rights groups say the immediate cuts are unconstitutional punishment for protected speech and likely to face legal challenges.
The post Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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