‘Like being underwater’: What it’s really like in Gaza tunnels where hostages are held

In the midst of massacres and kidnappings, an 85-year-old Israeli grandmother abducted and freed by Hamas terrorists has revealed what it was like being held in the terrifying maze of tunnels under Gaza.

Kibbutz resident Yocheved Lifshitz, one of an estimated 220 hostages taken violently by Hamas on October 7, endured a nightmarish two weeks as a prisoner in what she called a “spider’s web” of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip before being released late Monday with another woman, 79-year-old Nurit Cooper.

“I’ve been through hell,” Lifshitz said, nearly whispering while talking to reporters at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv.

“They went rampant in our kibbutz,” she said of the terrorists who invaded her home at the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel.

“They blew up the electronic fence, that special fence that cost 2.5 billion dollars to build but didn’t help with anything,” Lifshitz added. “Masses mobbed our homes. They beat people, took some hostage. They didn’t distinguish between young and elderly, it was very painful.”

She described how abductors grabbed and laid her out on a motorcycle before speeding off with her through thick bushes. Lifshitz said she was beaten with sticks ribs during the ride: “The young men hit me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but it was painful and I had difficulty breathing.”

The terrorists also stole her watch and jewelry on the way to the hiding place.

“They brought us to the entrance to the tunnels. We arrived in the tunnel and walked for kilometers on wet dirt,” she added. “There is a giant system of tunnels, like spider’s webs.”

Hamas’ vast matrix of tunnels comprises stuffy, narrow, labyrinthine passages with little oxygen. Military experts told NBC News that Israel is at a disadvantage when it comes to facing off against Hamas underground, where Israel’s technological superiority can’t help them.

“It’s like being underwater,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, who ran US security coordination in Israel and the Palestinian Authority from 2019 through 2021.

“I have been in the tunnels, and once you go down you very quickly lose all sense of direction and all sense of time,” said Daphné Richemond-Barak, an assistant professor at Israel’s Reichman University who founded the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare and is considered to have written the most comprehensive book on the subject. “The consensus is that you only really send your soldiers in the tunnel as a measure of last resort, maybe to get hostages.”

According to a 2016 report in the journal Geopolitics, the tunnels — used for moving equipment and ammunition — are typically around six-and-a-half feet tall and just about a foot wide. Some are said to be wired for electricity and communication.

Much was made of photos showing Lifshitz shaking hands with a Hamas gunman and seeming to say “Shalom” to him just moments before she was released to International Red Cross officials at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

But Lifshitz, with the help of her daughter Sharone who translated some of what the older woman said during the news conference, conceded that the captors took good care of the hostages — making sure they were well fed and medically supervised.

“When we got there they told us that they are believers of the Quran, that they won’t harm us, and we will live in the same living conditions as them in the tunnels,” Lifshitz said. “We started walking in the tunnels, [where] the dirt is damp and everything is always damp and humid. We reached a hall with 25 people in it; after two to three hours they separated five of the people from my kibbutz, Nir Oz. They guarded us closely.”

The militants also ensured hostages had medical care and medicine was given to those who needed it, she said.

“They took good care of the wounded,” the elderly woman added.

“We lay on mattresses, they made sure everything was sanitary,” Lifshitaz said. “They made sure we wouldn’t get sick, and we had a doctor with us every two or three days. They divided us into groups according to place of residence, took care of all our needs. To their credit, they kept us very clean. They made sure we ate, we ate the same food they did — pita bread with white cheese, processed cheese and cucumber.”

She explained that a paramedic was on the scene to dole out medicine and make sure wounds did not get infected.

“They cleaned the toilets, not us,” Lifshitz said. “They were afraid of contagion.”

But when her captors tried to talk about the war, the hostages apparently drew a line.

“We told [them], ‘No politics,’ ” Lifshitz said.

Lifshitz was critical of how the Israeli government handled the surprise Oct. 7 attack. She said the residents of her kibbutz suffered immeasurable harm because of Israel’s alleged failure of intelligence.

“We were the government’s scapegoats,” she said, referring to a September incident in the southern region of the country that presaged the October attack.

“We were deserted by the government three weeks earlier. [The Hamas] schooled us, so to speak. Masses came to the roads, they lit our fields on fire, sent balloons that would start fires in our fields. The IDF didn’t take it seriously,” Lifshitz said. “Suddenly, on Saturday morning [Oct. 7] when everything was quiet, they bombarded us — then swarms invaded the expensive fence, opened the kibbutz doors. It was very unpleasant.”

Given that, Lishitz’s family was amazed that she was returned to them.

“It’s unbelievable that grandma Yukka who is like a mother to me came back to us from the Hamas prisoners,” her grandson Daniel Lifshitz wrote on Facebook. “Love this very brave woman so much. A huge heroine.”

But Lifshitz’s reunion with relatives was not all joyful because her husband, who was abducted along with her, is still a hostage — along with more than 200 others, according to Israeli authorities.

Her son Arnon Lifshitz told Walla, an Israeli news site, that his mother had been kept “together with 50-60 other people in the same place. If everyone is there in the same situation, there is room for optimism. She and [my] father were separated, he was in another place, and we hope that he will also return healthy as soon as possible.”

Hostages Judith Raanan, 59, and her 17-year-old daughter, Natali were also released by Hamas Friday. The American mother and daughter were visiting Israel to celebrate Judith’s mother’s 85th birthday when they were abducted.

According to a report from Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, one-third of Nir Oz’s 400 residents are believed to have been abducted or killed in the attack. The Israeli government estimates some 1,400 people were killed by Hamas on Oct. 7.