A former Israeli hostage recalls the brutality of Hamas captivity

Moran Stella Yanai has told her story more times than she can count. She does not want to keep reliving Oct. 7, does not want that day to define her. But it feels like a duty now, she said, to speak for those who are not yet free. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“They cannot defend themselves in there,” Moran, 40, said, speaking from her living room in this southern Israeli city — just 25 miles from Gaza — surrounded by her jewelry and her art, Jewish religious texts, and by her dog and cat, both rescues.

“I want my sisters and brothers out of this hell.”

Six months after her release, Moran shared her experience in Hamas captivity with The Washington Post, recounting the terror of her abduction, the cruelty of her captors, and the lasting toll of the ordeal on her mind and body. She hoped it would remind the public of the 125 hostages remaining in Gaza, she said. They include 17 women, and two children under the age of 5. At least 39 are already confirmed dead.

Their plight has anguished Israeli society, and their return remains a stated goal of the country’s war in Gaza. Some families of hostages have taken to the streets to demand the government reach an agreement with Hamas for their release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that only military pressure can secure a deal to free them.

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Some of the 105 hostages released during a one-week cease-fire in late November have been hospitalized or placed in intensive rehabilitation programs. Others have stayed in the public eye — hoping to keep their stories in the headlines, out of fear they will be forgotten.

Moran has been in constant motion, meeting with activists, diplomats and even the U.N. secretary general. She has addressed audiences in Israel and around the world. The night before, she had stood on a stage in Tel Aviv, before 100,000 protesters, in a plaza now known as “Hostage Square.”

“Bring them home — NOW!,” she chanted.

Released Israeli hostage Moran Stella Yanai was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7. She says she feels it’s her duty to speak up for those still held captive in Gaza. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
‘Welcome to Gaza’
Moran, a designer and an artist, was captured three times on Oct. 7. She had gone to the Nova music festival in southern Israel to sell her handmade jewelry. It was her biggest venue yet. She hoped it would be the start of a new chapter in her life.

As Hamas gunmen descended on the site of the rave, she ran for her life, walking when she could no longer run. For five hours, she said, she wove through potato fields and across desolate stretches of desert.

She sent desperate voice messages to her parents. She was sure, she recalled, that her life “would end.”

She was eventually caught by a group of militants, who live-streamed a video showing Moran begging for her life in a ditch. “This is one of the Jewish dogs,” a man narrates.

She said she convinced them that she was Arab, using her limited Arabic vocabulary and pointing to her necklace, which had her middle name, Stella, in Arabic font — a gift from an Egyptian friend. They let her go.

“I found myself alone in the field without anyone from the party,” she said. “No army, no terrorists, nothing. And that’s when I hear more screams in Arabic coming toward me.” rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx rfx

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