'Hamas treated us like animals': Rescued hostage speaks on Gaza captivity

LUIS HAR (far left) and Fernando Marman (center), two hostages rescued in a special forces operation in Rafah, Gaza, early Monday morning, reunite with loved ones later in the day at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.

Rescued Gaza hostage Luis Har was “treated like a dog” by the terrorist organization Hamas while being held hostage, he told the Daily Mail in a report released on Wednesday.

The rescue occurred at 2 a.m. where the Mail report described it as a “huge explosion which threw the 71-year-old accountant from his mattress and ripped off the door from his tiny cell-like room.”

Har felt an arm grab his leg and someone told him “Luis, it’s the IDF – we came to take you home” in Hebrew.

Har had been in Hamas captivity for 129 days by the time of his rescue, during which he would bond with the Hamas captors over Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi, due to Har also being Argentinian.

The Mail report noted Har’s belief that “his luck had finally run out,” but after his rescue, he was in Israeli territory within the next hour. The report also noted that the helicopter that carried Har out of the Gaza Strip “dodged rocket fire to land at Sheba Medical Center.”

The IDF helicopter that brought freed hostages Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Luis Har (70). February 12, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

The IDF helicopter that brought freed hostages Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Luis Har (70). February 12, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

“If that soldier had told me to jump up, I would have jumped up. We were completely in their hands. Really completely. There was a feeling of complete security,” Har told the Mail.

Who else from Har’s family had been taken hostage?

Har was taken alongside his partner and her brother as well as his sister Gabriela and her daughter Mia. All five returned back to Israel alive.

During captivity

Also during Har’s captivity, he was told by Hamas terrorists that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was targeting the hostages and wanted him dead, and that nearly the entire four months he was in Gaza, he spent without sunlight, sleeping on paper-thin mattresses while surviving off scraps of pita bread. They also informed him of every time IDF soldiers were killed at that their kibbutz, Nir Yitzhak, no longer existed.

Har described the scene after Hamas terrorists initially kidnapped him, saying that “it was like a movie. Their barbarism… They didn’t consider us at all, as if we were animals or dogs. They just trampled all over us freely. Real barbarians. As if we weren’t human beings,” in reaction to seeing armed Hamas youths rushing into Gaza border communities, looting everything as they saw bodies scattered by the road, the Mail reported.

Har said that they were taken into a small building in Gaza, with him and the other four members of his family being pushed barefoot into a tunnel network at gunpoint, at times crawling on their hands or knees. The report noted that the terrorists had notes to navigate the tunnel maze.

Har and his family were moving from apartment to apartment by the terrorists during their captivity.

One terrorist laughed at Har’s niece Mia saying he “wanted to marry her.” When Har told him to stop, the terrorist mocked him saying “Wow, there’s a wolf here,” later bringing in a commando knife and started playing it to “frighten him,” the Mail quoted Har as saying. Mia had managed to also bring her dog into Gaza, who comforted Mia during captivity.