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Luis Har is a 71-year-old Israeli grandfather who was taken from his home at Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists. He was finally freed from captivity in the Gazan city of Rafah in “a daring military operation” carried out by the IDF in February 2024. More on his story, which he recently told to the newspaper Maariv, can be found here: “Most Hamas terrorists were drugged, completely inhumane, rescued hostage says,” by Sherry Makover-Balikov, Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2025:
“The hostages today are suffering from prolonged hunger,” released hostage Luis Har said in an interview with Maariv.”Hamas takes all the aid,” he continued. “I was there; I know what delaying the deals means. Every day increases fear, danger, and suffering. We must not wait, and we must not delay because every passing day increases the concern that, in the end, there will be no one left to bring back.”Har, who was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was later freed in a daring military operation in Rafah in February 2024. In his interview, he described the terrifying moments of his abduction, his prolonged captivity in the home of a Hamas operative in southern Gaza, and his eventual rescue and return to Israel….
Har said the captors’ treatment of the hostages varied. “There were some moments of humanity, but not the majority. Most of them were either drugged or completely inhumane.”
“The man of the house, for example, took care of us and made it a point to reassure us that we would be okay. He said, ‘If there’s peace between us, I’ll come to your kibbutz to eat pizza at your place.’ That doesn’t negate the brutality of him and the others, who constantly threatened and shouted. They thought our situation would end in two or three days, but suddenly it became long-term.”
Humor became a lifeline for Har and his fellow captives.
“At some point, we started laughing whenever they said, ‘shwaya shwaya’ (slowly, slowly). I’d say to the man of the house, ‘Come on, shwaya shwaya, we’ve already been here for weeks.’ Humor saved us.”
Har described the challenges of dwindling resources. “I cooked. At first, it was easy; there was everything—canned goods, vegetables, cheese—and they brought pitas every day. But over time, the food ran out. Eventually, Fernando [Merman] and I were sharing one pita a day, dividing it into pieces so we wouldn’t finish it all at once.”
His narrative tells of kidnapped Israelis existing in a miasma of fear: initial fear at the way they were dragged along the ground — “they treated us like rags” — to a waiting Toyota. While in that car, as it neared Khan Yunis, Har saw crowds of menacing teenagers thronging the vehicle; they were carrying large shears and came close to the car, “making threatening gestures as if they were about to cut us to pieces. The terrorists kept shooting in the air and sped through the crowd to prevent them from lynching us.” The Hamas terrorists wanted to keep the terrified hostages alive, not out of compassion, for they had already killed in a joyous mood many kibbutzim, but in order to have them available for the purposes of a future swap for imprisoned Palestinians. In captivity, every opening of their cell door filled them with dread, and they would think to themselves that “this is it. We’ve reached the final stop.”
At the beginning, Har described the food as adequate, but the amount they received steadily diminished, and before he was rescued, Luis Har was being given each day only a single piece of pita, which he had to share with another hostage.
The constant terror, the threats of being killed from both a mob of teenagers wielding shears and from their Hamas captors, the malnourishment (each day, only one-half of a single pita), the thin mattresses on a frozen floor that they were forced to sleep on, the freezing weather that they had to endure while wearing clothes fit for a summer outing — all this is what Luis Har experienced. But he was one of the lucky ones. He was rescued in February, after only four months of captivity. The hostages now in Hamas’ grip have been held captive for sixteen months, often in darkened tunnels for months at a time. Imagine living in a dark tunnel, half-starved and crazed with fear, fear of rape, of beatings, fear of being murdered, for sixteen months.
There is one part of Luis Har’s story that deserves special attention. He says that during the attack by Hamas operatives on October 7, they were accompanied by civilians: “There were many women and teenagers looting houses, running in all directions, and trying to enter homes along with the terrorists.” This should remind the world that many of those who are described as the “innocent civilians of Gaza” were in fact not innocent at all. Many hundreds of them eagerly entered the kibbutzim alongside the 6,000 Hamas operatives. Some went along for the fun of seeing Israelis raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered — perhaps some were even allowed by Hamas to join in. Others just wanted to loot the houses of the Israelis and joined Hamas members in “trying to enter homes along with terrorists.” They wanted loot left by the dead, and the dying. These were not “innocent civilians.” And hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza who support Hamas still, despite or rather because of the October 7 atrocities, cannot be described as “innocent civilians.” They are no more innocent than the Germans who knew perfectly well what was going on in the death camps, where the railroad cars emptied their ghastly cargo day after day, and human smoke rose from the crematoria.
This is why I contribute to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. There is no similar – or no well known – fellowship of Christians and Muslims. Why is that.? Is it because decapitation doesn’t sit well with Christians as a means of evangelization ? Jews never did that, not even in biblical times, not as a rule. anyway. That said, a few of my friends are Muslims.
Time to heed the Warning Close the Boarder and return Ham-A** to where it came from
The BBC apparently referred to the hostages as prisoners and was forced to apologise but by then it is too late, the legacy media is clearly antisemitic.
Look at the way the British treated Jews while appeasing Hitler, ignoring the Holocaust (and obstructing all attempts at rescue- while the Struma sank over the loss of over 900 Jews Anthony Eden suggested publicizing the tragedy to deter Jews from escaping Nazism. Later they interned over 30,000 Jews on Cyprus- most of them Holocaust survivors- for illegally entering the British Mandate of “Palestine”.
“the man of the house”? Is he kidding?
No real man would do that. This so called “man of the house” was nothing more than an emasculated Muslim pussy with a machine gun and a smelly green headband.
It’s easy to be a pretend tough guy when your captive is tied up.
When I see those headbands, I always think of the Teenage Hero Mutant Turtles – who, of course, also lived underground.
Israelis need to understand that befriending Gazans is opening the door to Hamas. Horribly, many taken from their kibbutzim homes were very, very liberal refusing to face the evil existing on the other side of the border. Part of the kidnapping, murders, rapes and mutilations along with other horrors was because of the kibbutzim members having Gazans clean their homes, take care of their children, do their shopping, become their “friends”. and unknown to these Israelis, these Gazans made maps of each of their homes, including members of their families and animals.
Hamas has known since they started capturing hostages that it was/is a huge leverage point against Israel and when negotiated properly in order for Israel to have our people returned, concessions advantageous to them will ultimately be met along with the disastrous release of imprisoned terrorists.
It is heartbreaking what each captive has endured, the real stories from them likely reserved for trauma therapists, or similarly to Holocaust survivors buried and never spoken of to anyone only to return in horrific nightmares and anxiety necessitating pharmacological support.
Having survived a childhood of horrific abuse, I intimately understand how fear, uncertainty, intermittent violence and sexual violations along with isolation, food deprivation, acts of designed degradation and living in a constant state of fear moving quite often into a deeply internalized state of terror necessitates the greatest forms of internal adaptation to survive.
Knowing this as a survivor, it is virtually impossible for me to understand why Israel refuses, as a Jewish nation and people, to unequivocally identify this evil and it’s administrators for exactly who and what they are: psychopaths using a malevolent religion justifying the torture, murder and intended annihilation of our people.
Apparently, the murderous reign of Hitler and our loss of 6 million Jews in WWII has taught us really nothing as we are now witnesses of yet another nightmare. Unless Jews worldwide face the reality of EVIL and understand it cannot ever be negotiated with but must be completely destroyed, we will witness others taken, hostage, soldiers whose fight on our behalf ends with death and Israel releasing yet more terrorists to come and murder us.
No muslim can be considered a person of humanity. Anyone who has been raised in the muslim world of terrorists can be trusted. Anyone, including children, who adheres to muslim beliefs should never be trusted. Be friendly, if you must, but never trust them. They are taught to hate Christians and Jews along with any Western values.
Problem is, modern multiculturalism insists that all religions are equal (which, being translated, means “equally invalid”), so either they have to believe that Mohammed was not a psychopath, or they have to believe that Jesus, Buddha, Moses and Guru Nanak were.
Islam is a death cult, not a religion. The koran instructs followers to kill infidels everywhere they go.
Agree wholeheartedly
Their still living totally 7th Century B.C. and notice I am not using the terms Before Common Era(BCE or Common Era(CE)because I am Not PC like Modern Liberal Pansies
Not as horrendous as the savagery endured in stories such as this, but let’s not minimize the impact of totalitarians screaming to get out of every progressive and that kind of impact on government whistle blowers – in retaliation and in prevention.
I’m not surprised that Luis Har describes how many if not most of the muslim killers were drugged. I recall during the Iraq war, there were reports of the Saudis bringing drugs into Iraq to give to the muslims so they would be immune to any natural feelings of compassion while massacring others.
I think the same must be the case with these muslims in our countries who go on killing sprees, especially of children; but there is never any mention in the reports of their atrocities of them being drugged up to the eyeballs.
All captors must face the same fate as the NZI prison guards in concentration camps.
No justice, no peace.
Ham-A** should be handed their Eviction Notice and evicted from America and send the Illegal Aliens/Future Democrat Voters and Supporters back with them