JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Maya Regev lay badly wounded in a nondescript home in Gaza, her leg mangled from a gunshot, below orders to not make a sound.
The 21-year-old begged her captors to let her youthful brother Itay, who was being held in a room close by, be a part of her whereas the bandages on her leg have been changed.
It was days after Hamas Islamists rampaged via southern Israel in a killing and hostage-taking spree on Oct. 7 that triggered the battle in Gaza. The siblings have been shot and wounded as they tried to flee an out of doors music pageant turned killing subject. They have been thrown right into a pickup and brought away with their good friend, Omer Shem Tov.
“Itay and Omer stroll in. And so they started eradicating the bandages. And I am screaming and Omer is holding my hand and protecting my mouth,” a tearful Maya recalled throughout an interview with Uvda, a current-affairs programme on Israel’s Channel 12 TV.
Itay, 18, informed how days earlier a “scared and sweaty physician” painfully eliminated the bullet from his leg with out anaesthesia, whereas he was instructed to stay quiet or be killed.
Maya’s harm was extra extreme and he or she says she was finally snuck right into a Gaza hospital. Her dangling foot was re-attached in surgical procedure, however sideways, at an unnatural angle. She gave her interview in a wheelchair, her leg in a solid.
The Regev siblings have been amongst greater than 100 hostages freed in a week-long ceasefire in late November. Shem Tov stays in captivity with practically 130 others. Some have been declared lifeless in absentia by Israeli authorities.
Whereas being handled within the hospital, Maya mentioned she was saved close to one other wounded Israeli hostage, Man Iluz. The 2 spoke about returning residence – what they might do, what they might eat. However Iluz died within the hospital.
“At first I refused to imagine. Earlier than they took him away I mentioned I’ve to see, like, that it is actually him. I’ve the responsibility to go converse to his household when that is over. I am the one one that knew what actually occurred to him.”
Itay mentioned that he and Omer within the meantime have been taken to a unique home, compelled to decorate as Muslim girls so they would not be acknowledged as they walked at the hours of darkness of night time.
From the hospital Maya wrote her brother and Omer a be aware and requested it’s delivered. She mentioned she argued together with her captors, demanding that she hear again.
Itay acquired it.
“They got here one time with a be aware, a be aware from Maya, through which she wrote me the place she is, what she goes via. She mentioned she loves me, requested me to remain sturdy, for the household, for everybody,” he mentioned.
He despatched a response.
“They introduced me a be aware that they (Itay and Omer) wrote me, and I knew it was actually from them as a result of I acknowledged the handwriting and my brother known as me by my nickname,” Maya mentioned.
Itay calls his sister patcha.
“It was a lightweight, a small mild in all of the darkness, that I hear from my little brother and from Omer, that I perceive they’re okay.”
They continued corresponding.
“These notes gave a lot energy, like within the small second that I really feel a bit like I’m diving into unhealthy ideas, I simply held Maya’s be aware, learn it like ten occasions, and it could give me energy,” Itay mentioned.
For the reason that temporary ceasefire, Israel has pushed forward with its devastating marketing campaign in Gaza, saying that army stress is required to free the remaining hostages.
Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed greater than 21,800 folks based on well being authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, with many extra feared lifeless within the rubble, and pushed practically all its 2.3 million folks from their properties. Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been attempting to dealer a deal that would come with a pause within the combating and the discharge of extra hostages.
Itay was separated from his good friend, solely to seek out out later he had been included within the listing of hostages to be freed.
“If I had recognized I used to be going residence, I can let you know that most likely I would not agree to go away with out Omer,” he mentioned.
Their story will not be over but, he added. “Despite the fact that Maya and I are residence, Omer remains to be there.”
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Enhancing by Andrew Heavens)
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