I took two tours to the Gaza envelope. On the second trip they took us to meet a hostage who had been freed. She had been from the kibbutz that we had visited and now she was living with the rest of the survivors from her community in a development town in a high-rise building.
The journalist writes that "Liat Atzili was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and was held hostage for weeks by two young members of Hamas - a teacher and a lawyer - not knowing if her husband and three children were still alive. The experience she endured is unlike any we've heard of so far."
HaAretz published an article about her experiences. 'I Wanted Them to Like Me. That's How You Survive': Liat Atzili Spent Weeks Conversing With Her Hamas Captors. Here's What They Talked About -- from Haaretz Tomer Appelbaum and Shany Littman Jul 27, 2024
The journalist writes---
After Liat came back, I felt I had to see her with my own eyes. Now, seven months later, I wanted to hear first-hand what she had undergone. Her story is apparently not representative of that of most of the 250 or so people taken hostage: Not only was she not held in the terrorists' warren of underground tunnels and not only did she receive sufficient food, but she was not subjected to physical violence or treated cruelly. She makes a point of noting that she was very lucky.
What did Liat tell him?
Atzili realized that something irregular was happening on October 7 after a friend from outside the kibbutz called to tell her what she was seeing on social media. "I said that such a thing couldn't be," she recalls now.
She spent the first minutes in the safe room with Aviv. "The number of air-raid sirens was insane. And within just a few minutes we also heard rifle fire. Aviv said, 'There are people here in the kibbutz, I'm going out to see what's happening.' He was a member of the kibbutz security squad and he had a pistol. He returned after a few minutes, told me that he and our neighbor would be out walking around in the neighborhood, and left again. That was the last time I saw him."
Liat remained alone in their safe room with their dog. At about 11 A.M., two armed men in uniform burst into the unlocked room. She was taken captive.
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