25/03/2025
In an interview to , the released hostage Ilana Gritzewsky shared horrific details from her abduction on Oct.7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and her time in captivity in .
After Ilana was captured, she was trapped between two gunmen on a motorcycle, her head and face covered with a large piece of nylon or tarpaulin. Ilana said that the men pressed her leg onto the exhaust pipe, burning it, and that one of the kidnappers sitting behind her groped her, touching her breast under her shirt, and her legs. She passed out before they crossed the border.
When she came to, she said, she found herself on the floor in a dilapidated building, clearly in Gaza, her shirt up baring her breasts and pants pulled down, with seven gunmen standing over her. She does not know what exactly happened to her while she was passed out, but she said she gestured to them and told them in English that she had her period, believing that probably saved her from worse. “They hit me and lifted me up,” she said.
“I felt they were disappointed,” she said, adding, “I don’t think I have ever been so thankful for my period.”
Over more than 50 days she was moved from place to place, mostly aboveground, at first alone with her captors and then held with other .
One of her captors hugged her and told her, while pointing his pistol at her, that even if there was a deal, she would not be released because he wanted to marry her and have her children, she said. She said one told her he was a mathematics teacher, and another, a lawyer. She said they stole her earrings and a bracelet.
Ilana’s partner, Matan Zangauker, now 25, is still held in captivity. .