Elderly hostage freed by Hamas stopped to wish captors peace even though they put her ‘through hell’

One of the two elderly Israeli hostages released by Hamas terrorists late Monday turned back to wish her captors peace — even though she confirmed Tuesday that they put her “through hell.”

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was seen turning back to one of the masked gunmen handing her to Red Cross employees at Gazah’s Rafah Crossing more than two weeks after she was beaten and abducted during a slaughter at her kibbutz.

Video of the exchange showed her reaching out her hand and wishing him “shalom,” a Hebrew word meaning “peace” often also used to say goodbye.

Asked at a press conference Tuesday why she took the terrorist’s hand, Lifshitz generously claimed that “they were gentle with us, our needs were supplied” — despite describing the horrors she was put through.

“They were prepared for this, they were prepared for a very long time,” Lifshitz said of the savage terror group.

However, that was a far cry from her description of how she was abducted as the terrorists slaughtered people at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, with her 83-year-old husband Oded among those still being held hostage.

“They went berserk in our kibbutz,” she recalled, saying she was beaten with a stick and forced to walk several kilometers through Hamas’ network of tunnels.

“I’ve been through hell,” she said from a wheelchair at the Tel Aviv hospital where she is recovering.

“We never thought we’d reach such a state,” Lifshitz, who was born in Israel in 1938, said of what she experienced on Oct. 7.

She told how a “swarm” of terrorists broke through a two-and-a-half billion shekel security gate and “stormed our homes.”

“They hit people,” Lifshitz recounted at the press conference. “They did not care about kidnapping [the] elderly and children. It was extremely painful.”

Lifshitz said she was hauled onto a motorcycle, with her head on one side and her legs hanging off the other.

As they traveled, Lifshitz said, the terrorists beat her with a stick.

“They didn’t break my limbs, but it was extremely painful for me,” she said.

Once they arrived at the vast tunnel network Hamas uses in Gaza, Lifshitz said they walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground before they arrived at a large hall where about 25 other hostages were being held.

After a few hours, five of them from the kibbutz were brought to a separate room with a guard standing outside.

“When we got there, they told us they believe in the Quran and will give us the same conditions they have,” Lifshitz said, noting that a doctor came every two to three days to check on the hostages, and a paramedic was also on the scene to provide them with medicine — and to make sure they did not get an infection from their injuries.

“They were friendly in their way,” she said.

“They made sure that we eat the food they ate: white cheese and cucumbers — that was the meal for the whole day.”

She added that she keeps “having those images in my mind.”