Chilling Details of How Hamas Treated Hostages in Captivity

0:00It didn't quite make sense. Yeah. Well, are you ready to start? All right, we're good. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. And we are starting. Welcome to our fight. So, my name is Juan Stella Yanai and I'm 41 years old currently and I was kidnapped from the Nova Festival. being held captive for 54 days, which I, you know, these days I'm not saying the amount of days because I feel like awkward to say 54 compared to 603 days, which is unacceptable in no way. But on October 7th, which is what I live till today, for us, it's not a year and a half past by. It's the same day every single day till everybody will come back.

0:49I was at ANOVA. I came as a vendor Basically came first time to a festival first time showing my jewelry in that you know size and amount I was Working on it for a day and night for three weeks Thinking that this is you know, this is gonna be the great great opening and this is me starting my new journey, you know And the entire night was bad hunches that I couldn't explain. Bad hunches that I couldn't explain. There was a video that was posted a few months ago that shows some of the footage of us that night. And I saw my body language. I was so like, you know, closed body language. I was not dancing.

1:35I was on the side. I was... I could not explain what I was going through, you know? And then at 6.29, everything shattered. two rockets in the sky, and like many testimonies that I'm sure you heard, there was nonstop bombing, rockets, grenades, RPGs, everything that you can think of was on there at that time. How quickly from the rockets, they shot the rockets first, I assume, and then broke through, so was it just like explosions everywhere, and then it was... The rockets were supposed to be confusing us, to not know that at the same time they shot those two rockets, they entered Israel at some points, and then just waited for everything to become a chaos.

2:23They were not expected that everything will be open, and they will come, and they were not expected the amount of people that were at the Nova Festival. So it felt that they were celebrating their big, own festival, you know? And for us, for me especially, Actually, I was at the NOVA festival at 5 to 8 in the morning, which means that at that point we are completely surrounded, not knowing, rejecting everything that I see. I served the army 22 years ago. I know what I hear. I know what I feel, and I keep resisting it. That cannot be happening, you know. And we didn't run at the beginning. And at that point we didn't know that there were terrorists on the other side of the festival.

3:10and one of my friends he tried to protect me as long as he could and he gave me that cue that I was so afraid to hear and he said start to run as fast as possible and like I say in my lectures you know nobody taught us how to be that hopeless and nobody taught us how to maneuver or driving in a car between screaming people and every time I I say it was completely chaos because when when a person having an anxiety attack, then the best tool for him is to look up for another reaction. And I saw some people laughing and I saw some people dancing and I saw some people running and screaming and it's like we didn't understand what is going on, you know.

3:54That's completely chaos. And that's it. That was me starting to run. How long between the initial sounds that you heard did you see actual terrorists coming through? Do you even remember? So in my story I felt protected. I didn't see in my eyes the terrorists and the dead bodies, but the car that I was in with my friends Running away. We were shot at the car. We see bullet holes on the car They saw bodies. They saw the terrorists right behind us. We were trying to escape them for five hours So it was like completely put in an effort for trying to save my life, you know not fighting them back at any point and At one point we were completely lost We didn't know where to go because at any turn we took, we were shot at.

4:40And we managed to grab the police over the phone. And they gave us a command to get off the cars and go hide in the trees. But at that day, there were 45 ,000 calls to the police, which came to so many places in the country because they didn't have the amount of people to help us. So they didn't understand the situation and the place that we were at. There was no place to hide. and they gave us the command to get off the cars, you know, and we were trying to hide. There were five people. So you did get out of the car. We got off the cars. We couldn't, we didn't know what to do, you know. Yeah.

5:18Every second you feel that this is going to be over, right? It's going to be over soon, and it's not. It's keeping on, keeping on, keeping on, and the amount of anxiety that I felt at that point almost exploded my brain, you know. I almost fell asleep because I couldn't handle the situation. I was so terrified that it was okay Maybe I will fall asleep and it will be over. You know, it's a bad dream or something We were leaning on each other and I don't know how to explain it that oh Nice to meet you. This is one special person if he wants to speak This is Michelle. This is the guy. Yeah, Dave.

5:57Nice to meet you. This is guys father and guy is was taken hostage and was murdered in Gaza and he's still in captivity still in captivity yeah already 603 days yeah it's a shame and still counting unfortunately God bless you thank you bye you know when I see them then my body start starting to shiver because when I'm telling their story it's like I feel blame then I got back home you know and it's not it's not passing by us at no point of time you know okay so at that point we were like cleaning on each other thinking that you know the person sitting next to me he must know what to do at that situation but you know I saw all the hairs like goosebumps and the guy that I was like counting on he's scared he's trying to protect his girlfriend and I understand that I'm by myself you know and I called my dad I was trying to put myself like really calm and telling him that this is not a joke we are being shot at we need to get off and go hide in the trees and but everything is okay and that's the last word it hurt for me because I couldn't understand it felt that I'm being overdramatic you know and my mom called and I didn't want to answer because she's Moroccan I'm afraid of her you know but she called and I texted her I don't have a battery I love you and it's like I deleted that I love you because I'm not I don't want to say goodbye you know I'm not saying goodbye from nobody and really trusting that this thing will end but then 40 minutes later it's not only artillery sound anymore we're hearing screaming in arabic and they're coming towards us and that's it that's the point that unique to run as fast as possible and i didn't see my friends anymore at one point and the terrorist was right behind me holding an iron pipe like about to beat me up in my head and i I didn't have no other point.

8:14I had to jump from a high place. And I jumped and I hit my leg. And he jumped after me, was about to beat me up. And I could never explain to a person, no matter how much I tell this situation, what I felt inside. Like something was controlling me at that point and reacting for me because I couldn't, you know. And I pretended to be an Arab. That's what came out from my mouth. I had an Arabic necklace on my neck, which I got as a present from my jewelry suppliers. I'm a jewelry designer. And I was trying to protect my life by pretending to be an Arab and saying, My name is Stella, my name is Stella.

8:58And at one point he took an iron pipe down and he said, okay enough but then he took things from my pockets and he he told me to go on the mountain and I didn't realize I had two broken legs at that point and it's like you don't feel the pain it's mine over body it fight or flight it's mine if it's not mine that you're not surviving this situation and I climbed the mountain and he asked me some question and I don't know what happened but he turned around and left. So in my story I was caught three times and at the first two times I managed to I don't know manipulate them with two broken legs trying to protect my life like standing still.

9:45I have one video from the first taken and there were two terrorists and on the second time it was ten terrorists. What happened the second time? I was by myself and it was a potato field. So it's like a huge area with no place to hide. It's just round and it's, I don't know how to say it in English, but it's really curly. Yeah, like the... Yeah, it's the cover of the potatoes. It cannot really run also. And I was completely exposed. Now able to hide. And I heard screaming in Arabic again. and I saw this group of 10 Arab terrorists running towards me. I had nothing to do. I just sat down and waited for them to come.

10:29And when they came, again, something control over my head, screaming, you have to do what he did at the first time. And I pretend to be an Arab again. It was like a lot of screaming in between 10 to 15 minutes, you know, this whole situation. I don't remember so much about that situation except of the fact that at one point it asked me where will we go and I was like you're releasing me I'll go whenever and I'm standing on two broken legs still you know and I think that though they heard like they thought that the army is coming because they heard an explosion and they ran away and they left me in there and that's it I had no necklace on my neck anymore I give it as a present to try to manipulate again doing whatever I can to take me out of this situation and survive with situation that I don't understand what is happening completely confused you know and I walked few steps and I chose to do the one thing that we were not allowed to do it that day and I scream so loud for help I thought that this is it you know I didn't see nobody and then I heard screaming in Arabic from my back I looking around and look to my back I must see one mile away from me 13 command terrorist running towards me and that was it.

11:50Something told me in my head, you have to let go, it's happening. And I remember I answered like out loud, what is happening? And when they came, it was done, no talking. They pulled me from the tree, started to drag me, beat me up on the way. And one of them, he decided to rip off all of my jewelry from me. and he ripped everything from me. It was a ton of jewelry on me. And at one point he cut my hand off and they understood that I'm stalling them. They pick me up and something again told me in my hand, you have to let go. I mean, release all your muscles, release your mind because this is a situation that I cannot even imagine or handle, you know?

12:37Do you remember, were they saying anything to you? Were they saying anything to each other? They were screaming so loudly. They were celebrating. And I remember from the body language that they were not expecting. They were looking at me as a trophy. And they don't see me even as a woman, you know? They see me just as flesh and blood, something that you have to eliminate or destroy or kill or whatever. They didn't even understand what to do with me, you know, at one point. They just took me, dragged me and they don't have a car so they dragged me by foot and at one point they are understanding that I'm stalling them so they took me up, started to throw me out from one to another.

13:18They don't see me as a human being, I'm just flesh and blood and that's it. And at that point I always say, you know, it's one after another, one worst case after another. And the worst of the worst is that they will find a car before somebody will find me and that's It's happening. And at that point, we were 11 people inside that car. 10 men and me. And I didn't see nobody. No hostages, no people around. So I feel in my brain that this is all for me. They caught me. My friends managed to run away, and they caught me. So starting a fight in my brain. What is happening now? My dead or alive. And towards the way they were happy, beat me up on my head, in my legs, everywhere.

14:09And then at one point I said to myself, close your eyes, I don't wanna see it. Like, I understand what is gonna happen now. Like I said, I served in the army, I know the drill. And the worst of the worst is the entrance to Gaza. Cause at that point, and I wanna stop and say before that, I'm a person that was just seeking for peace before, you know and even today today I'm not using the word peace I want my brother the sisters back but before that I had our neighbors I had our friends I was in a co-existing living city in Beresheva it's like we don't feel this situation that everybody is speaking about because everybody has the same rights everybody can walk in the street freely and everything is okay you know so I always say that if somebody will stop to check who's the people that they chose to kidnap, they will be blown away because all of us, most of us, because most of the most of us didn't care.

15:11Most of us as Arab, you know, even in the army, in the workplace, in life, you know, they're living between us. It's not, you know, foreign. My grandmother is Egyptian. She was speaking to me Arab until I was 17. It's not foreign for me. Wearing an Arabic necklace as a Jewish person, you know, and but at that point I saw enters to Gaza, the terrorist is being happy, pulling me by the hair, wanting me to open my eyes and see. And I saw 100 civilians, 100 % of civilians celebrating me being kidnapped, me being brutally, violently beaten up during the way, and they're happy. And they're screaming, God is great and everything is okay and the terror that I saw in their eyes was the minute that I chose to close my eyes again because I understood if this car will stop in the middle of the crowd I'm done and it happened the car stopped and few of the terrorists got out from the car and I closed my eyes and I saw the crowd trying to pull me up I am resisting and everything is seconds you know and had no way to protect myself and my nails on me and I had a thought in my head that I will stuck them on the person that I'm sitting on I'm gonna use him as a human weight if they will try to pull me again and I probably hurt him badly I don't know because he screams house if somebody closed the door and I always say that that was another moment in October 7th that I'm counting as a save You know, I was saved from a lynch, from being beaten up, from being killed by beating up.

17:02And I mean, in the middle of Gaza, saying thank you for being saved. That's the situation. From this point on, you know, the journey starts. Do you want to look around a little bit? Yeah, so... Ask me whatever. No, I... Okay, so you're out, you're now out, and they grab you and then they immediately, and there's all these civilians and everyone's cheering and your legs are broken and all the stuff, and you speak out. Were you still trying, so at that point you just decided not to speak anymore or try to plead? No, from that point on, I had a journey till I got to the first house. I had 11 moves in 54 days and five different houses.

17:45And the first place I went to is the hospital. and in the hospital I saw about 30 Hamas terrorists inside a small room looking on top of me. One is taking off my shoes, one is taking off the thing from my pocket and I'm saying to myself, I'm done. I'm going to be killed now and I'm preparing myself to be killed, you know. And seconds, you know, passing by and I see somebody's putting a cast on one of my legs and I'm saying, okay, if you put a cast, I'm not being killed now. I have to put on every effort that I can find to remember everything and to survive, you know. And from that point on, they took me to the first house.

18:24I was throwing them to a small mattress covered with a sheet. And when they took the sheet off, I saw an investigator in front of my face. And he was happy. And he was constantly saying to me that God loves me. and I was saved and I couldn't understand what he was saying and I was crying you know right I was allowing myself still to cry at that point and he's speaking to you in Arabic obviously he was speaking to me in Arabic I understood a little bit from what I remembered from my grandmother and at that point he's grabbed my pants and he was angry and we started asking where do you serve where did you serve and I was like why are you asking me this question I'm not a soldier and that I understood what I was wearing.

19:09I was wearing green army like look like uniform and army boots and I started crying immediately and he considered me as a soldier from that point on. So my journey in this whole captivity situation was really bad for me because they thought I'm a soldier and I'm hiding information from them and I'm 40 years old so I must be you know an important officer and why am I wearing uniform and you need to deal with so many conspiracy that it's like I don't know even how to deal in this situation what do I need to do to force you to believe that I'm saying the truth you know nothing helped and with every word that I knew to say they thought that I'm no Arabic fluently and that was it for me I was constantly was, behaved differently for me, you know, inside all the houses in there.

20:08Right. When you were moved from house to house, were you with any other people that were kidnapped or were you always... So after two hours that I was in the house, understanding that I was in a bad situation, they brought into the room this young girl, 18 years old, barefoot, in her pyjama, with long, bright hair and bright eyes. And I was like, this she is not our for sure. But who is she and they didn't let us talk for 30 days. We're not allowed to speak We were not allowed to cry. We were not allowed to sing and we were allowed to sit and be still You know, but I was trying to communicate with them immediately Yeah, cuz you know in my head.

20:48I need to know What are you planning to do with me and I need to know how to protect her because she was so young Eventually, I realized that this is Nogavais and she's 18 years old and she was kidnapped from her house in Beiri and her dad was murdered and still being kept hostage in Gaza. Her mother was also taken hostage. and you know this is a situation that I'm with this foreign child you know I need to be her mother now and that was the situation in every house and you couldn't communicate with her in any way not in the beginning and they were sleeping in with us in the room they were always happy they brought people from my side to see the price you know this is what we brought asking questions telling about our stories, you know, using conspiracies.

21:44And all we need to do is be amen to every word they say, you know. So at one point you understand that you need to release everything. This is not yours anymore. But I have one thing that is mine from the beginning till the end. That was my mind and my faith. But that's it. They took my name. They took my freedom. They did whatever they want with me, you know. and that's it. You need to accept the situation. But in my head, the will to live was so much stronger for everything they tried to do with me. And, you know, I'm talking about situation because I was like the head communicator in the room.

22:26And constantly, every day was for me, starting from the beginning. I don't curse them, I don't yell, I don't do any bad behavior. I respect them and I understand that I have to respect them because I want to be respected as well and I want to leave, you know, but You know at one point I had to entertain them for over 13 hours I had to play with them cards make them happy make them left, you know, and I'm hungry And at one point I probably said something wrong which till today. I'm trying to understand what was it? But in seconds there was a gun pointed to my head, being threatened again and again and again.

23:09And every day was that. Starting from zero, asking them, what do you want? Why are you so angry? Why are you so... full of hate, you know? I mean, how does that support you in life? Why aren't you, you know, one... You know, I always say in my lecture that the differences between us and them, that also bad for us and also good for us. We are individuals. Each and every one of us has different dreams and goals. And we are working for that. And that was get us involved as a society, you know. But they get up every morning for 54 days, which that what I saw, putting the carpet on the floor, taking their prayer, and in the prayer you put in the purpose of elimination, extermination, and hate.

24:03Why? And I couldn't understand that till the last day I was trying to communicate with them. Being threatened with a gun, being beaten up, being abused, being starved. I was sitting there with two broken legs. I was sitting there with lices on my head and that amount that I cannot explain to you because I had everything that you can imagine in my head. So physically I was broken. I lost eight kilos from my weight in 54 days. There were days that this is it. You have one half of pita and that's it. But you smell the food that they eat from the other room. I mean, you have food. And in the Korean, it says you need to live equally like us.

24:49Even if he took somebody hostage, you need to live equally as him. And every time, it was abuse in any way, but the worst of the worst was the mental abuse. Because every single day, investigation, conversation that you think that is on your side now, but then eventually he take everything, all the information and pass it on to all the other people. So, I don't know. I mean, I tried my best every single day. And so they're moving you around. Was that because then the war started or in essence, Israel went into Gaza? Yeah. And they just kept moving you guys and you just had no idea what was happening.

25:32But you need to understand that the houses were exploding not only from our rockets. There were missile launchers next to the houses. and if they knew they're gonna launch you know missiles that die they took us away from the window because they knew is gonna be exploded on the second day our window was shattered and it was not because of us you know so I'm asking you using us as human shield you take your own people houses and you put us in and then you put all the other people in in danger you know why aren't you protecting them. Why aren't you using this amount of money that you got like a few years ago and building shelters, you know?

26:15Why aren't you giving them the way to be new education, you know, put new education in the school? Why is everything against? And that's what I say to, you know, I met one poor Palestinian, really, really smart person from Yusraela, and he has many followers after him. And asking one question, if you already have that power, why aren't you trying to communicate and combine and connect that this thing will not happen again to neither of the sides? Why are you still using this power for violence, for aggression, for the wrong purpose, you know? So I'm asking today, where are we going to? What are we trying to achieve by doing that, you know?

27:03and eventually I have my people. I will be there back as much as I can, you know, because they took our freedom when we didn't try to fight them back, you know? And you'll see around so many exhibitions that explains how people feel. It's not belong to the place, it's like outside artists and they were trying to put their emotions, you know, in this situation that we cannot bear anymore. And if you ask every, each and every person in here, in the square, they will tell you one thing. We just want our people back. That's it. None of us wants to get up in the morning and be in a war. Every one of us, be sure of it.

27:55We want to leave. We like to leave. Yeah, it could be over tomorrow if they wanted it to be over tomorrow. Exactly. Was there any moment that you thought you were going to be rescued before you were rescued? Or did you have any sense? Or was there anyone, did you meet, did any of them offer you any sympathy or try? Was there any one of them that was a little better to you? Or you sort of referenced that they, you had some that you could speak to and then they kind of turned on you. Was there, did you see any humanity at any point? I don't even really care in some sense or. You know, I really like that question because I have two faces for my answer.

28:31What is humanity? When I sat there and I looked at Hamza, we tried, maybe in his brain, maybe. Are you talking about the UCLA guy? No, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about one of the terrorists inside. I mean, one of the terrorists inside. He was trying to be good. Let's take that for example. What is humanity? if I'm hungry and no food is coming to me and I'm looking at him and I'm saying I'm hungry and he said well Israel blocked the line of food but I smell the food that they eat from the other room so what is humanity that he gave me a smile in the morning I didn't get back home I didn't get the medical treatment that I needed I didn't get food I had days I had one day that really that was the day that I thought everything will be done.

29:21I had food poisoned so severe that by the end of that day I had 180 pulls. I couldn't stand, I couldn't raise my head, I couldn't do anything and I was starting to say goodbye for my family. Do you know how much water I had in those days? 20 milliliters of salty water. But she told me that that's the budget for the next two days. So I need to calculate the water that I drink. So I told the other hostage trying to you know showing her you know I'm strong we will survive the situation don't worry we will drink one cap one cap every hour just to get the mouth wet you know and then I can collate it it would be enough for two days you know that's the situation that we needed to be at did he gave me medical care in that situation really heard my screams that I couldn't scream because I was not allowed to scream.

30:18I couldn't cry because I was not allowed to cry. I hear testimonies of other hostages that were in the hospital with gunshots. No anesthesia. Every single day when they come to clean the wounds, no anesthesia. You feel everything when they have the option to give you anesthesia, for example. Just to be clear, so this is, they're eating fine. They're eating just fine. Well, you know, I'm looking on the small things. I had, I don't know how to say it, but I was covered, like covered, full covered with spikes. Because when I was hiding, I was on a spike. You don't feel anything, really. But on the third day, I started to feel that, you know, I had infections in some places all over.

31:12and I asked him if I could, I didn't ask even. I was trying to take them out by myself and he saw it from the side and he was smiling. He brought, you know, a pinch and I asked him if I can do it by myself because I know it's really painful, you know. And he was smiling and he said, no, give me your hands and he tried to take them one after another. And he didn't care that he's taking my skin off, you know, with it. And when I said, ow, he said, shh, no screaming. So you need to sit down like this, like a robot, and wait for him to finish, you know? So what is humanity? That he left with me at some point, but then he shattered me with no hope to come back home?

31:57What is humanity that he brought me? Maybe one extra spoon to three people? Or when he gave me four showers in 54 days, when the shower is a bucket of water that I need to split the free people. So what is humanity? When you have the option. They did it. They were clean. They looked at us every day, you know, they opened the door one day and one of the terrorists took the shirt and put it on his mouth. And I looked at him and I said, but you did it. You made this happen. We are not, he called us filthy, you know. we don't have the option to get clean. They don't understand that. That's why I always say they must be educated from the beginning to understand what is human being lives.

32:52And when I see one mother in Gaza, I saw this a few days ago, I was shocked. About all her children? No, not the nine children. Yeah, I saw that. One mother before that, that nobody heard about, and I saw that video, it's on Instagram, being so proud that her four children died when they tried to exploit themselves to kill other people and she said she waited she has two more grandchildren and she can wait for them to die too so I'm asking what am I finding a guess it will never meet because we we celebrate life we're trying to you know showing the living and the dead as alive but you don't care about your own people.

33:35So what am I fighting with? And that's what I'm trying to tell. I mean, you know, at some point I feel sore for them, but that's the life that they need to live. They don't have the option to dream, you know? I mean, no matter what I went through, and I'm telling you, I was abused almost every day. I still tried to take one of the captures and to explain to him how Thailand looks like me because he never left the borders of Gaza and I was trying to tell him that there are Palestinians in England you know and there are Palestinians along the world why are you closing here and at one point I was doing him guided imagination you know I was trying to take him and his wife and his children to you know to the beach in Thailand and his body language you know she raised up and at one point like a balloon fell down and he says no how much will kill me he doesn't have the option to think you know beyond the borders that he put in his mind so again what am i fighting with they need to be new they need to be educated all over again any person that has something bad to say about that situation needs to be educated all over again from our side and their side too you know and so so all right 54 days tell me about day 54 no it's not day 54 it's day 53 it's actually day 49 they took us from the house and they told us that we're going home something felt that you know I didn't feel it didn't feel right.