Israeli Hostage Recounts His Captivity: ‘We Were Looked At Like Animals’

In November 2023, in the first and so far only release of hostages by Hamas, Ofir Engel, then 18, was handed over to the Israelis by the terrorists. Now he has at long last been recounting what he endured at the hands of his captors. You can find more of his riveting testimony here: “‘Animals at a zoo’: Released hostage describes terrorists bringing civilians to observe him,” Jerusalem Post, November 22, 2024:

Released hostage Ofir Engel revealed the mistreatment and abuse Hamas terrorists subjected him and his girlfriend’s family to on Oct.7 and as captives in Gaza in an interview with the Jewish News Syndicate published on Thursday.

The now-19-year-old Engel was abducted from Kibbutz Beeri on Oct.7, where he was observing Simchat Torah with his girlfriend Yuval Sharabi and her family. They were sleeping at 6:30 in the morning when rocket sirens woke them.  He was 17 at the time Hamas abducted him.

“But the [sirens] didn’t stop,” Engel told JNS. “After two-and-a-half hours, friends started sending scary messages about hearing terrorists outside their houses and pleading for the army to arrive.”

Slowly realizing the seriousness of the situation, Engel read of the news of the invading terrorists – learning of the ongoing massacre from survivors and witnesses. The terrorists would soon make their way to the Sharabi home.

“After six hours, we heard a large ‘boom’ coming from the entrance to the house. We heard terrorists roaming around inside while we were still all in the safe room,” he recalled. “A few minutes later, they tried opening the door to the room. Yuval’s dad, Yossi, was holding it closed. But he wasn’t able to overcome the three terrorists pushing it open.”

When the terrorists eventually forced their entry into the safe room, Engel said the first thing they did was shoot the family’s dog.

 “They entered armed. The first thing they did was shoot Yuval’s dog. They then pointed their guns at us,” he described. “They made us sit outside on the grass with the neighbors, the Shani family. Smoke was everywhere, as was the smell of gunpowder.”…

Was the dog shot because its barking might have alerted other Israelis of an attack in progress? Not likely, because the sound of the gunshot would have been even more of a warning. And besides, the terrorists had the kibbutz surrounded. Most likely, they were merely expressing their Muslim hatred of dogs, that derives from a hadith in which Muhammad says he will not enter a house where “there are dogs or images of a living soul.”

They were put on display by the terrorists, so that some of those “innocent” civilians whose travails we hear so much about could come and look and laugh delightedly at the young and old Zionist captives in their immense distress, “like animals in a zoo.” Their malignant glee should remind us of the Gazan civilians who came out to see the Israeli captives when they were first being brought into Gaza, dumped on the back of lorries, or slung over motorcycles — with the girl captives often half-naked — and to hit them with their fists and sticks as they passed slowly by.

For 26 days, Engel remained hostage in that home – needing to ask permission to go to the bathroom, and not being allowed to stand.

If the captives were not allowed to stand, I assume they had to crawl on all fours to and from the bathroom. But perhaps Ofir Engel’s “bathroom” was like that of other released captives who have testified — not a room, but a bucket shared by all the captives.

At least Engel had food, albeit very little. Many of the captives were being slowly starved to death. When the body of Eden Yerushalmi was returned, she weighed only 79 pounds.

The threat of death — and the actual deaths of hostages who were executed — was always in the air; every captive was made to feel that he, or she, could be next. As we know, about half of the 100-odd hostages that Hamas is supposed to be holding have already been murdered. Among them was Yossi Shalabi, the father of Ofir Engel’s girlfriend.