Released hostage: 'There was a picture of Gilad Schalit in my room'

KFAR AZA residents call for the release of the hostages, outside Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv yesterday.

Norlin Babdila, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nirim on October 7 and was released after 53 days in captivity, discussed details of her time in Gaza in an interview on Tuesday with Kan News.

Gideon Babdila, who was Norlin’s partner, was kidnapped alongside her on October 7 and was killed in captivity. She thought he was still alive and would “pray and talk to him” while she was in Gaza.

Speaking about the day she was kidnapped, she expressed the great fear and panic that overwhelmed her. “There were five armed terrorists. They pointed their weapons at me, and I told them please, not me.

“Please, not me.”

I showed them my cross and told them I was Filipino. I begged them again [not to kidnap me]. They took me in a car where I was alone with the bodies of multiple murdered Israelis in the trunk.”

Babdila claimed that in the “small room [within the Gaza Strip] where [I was held], there was a picture of Gilad Schalit.”

“Every day was like hell.”

When she arrived in Gaza, three terrorists led her to a house, where she stayed in a small room with freed hostages Irena Tati and Karina Engelberg.

10 hostages released by Hamas on Tuesday, November 28, 2023 (credit: The Jerusalem Post)

10 hostages released by Hamas on Tuesday, November 28, 2023 (credit: The Jerusalem Post)

Norlin Babdila is in the top row, third picture. (L-R)

“Every day was like hell. The first day, there was electricity and a fan, but after that, there was nothing. We were hot, and [every day] there was less water and food. When we asked to shower, they put a small bucked for the three of us. What was left for us?

Even when we went to the bathroom, we didn’t have water to flush. Sometimes, for a while, we wouldn’t flush the water, and the smell would flood the room.”

Norlin said she and the other hostages could not sleep because of the loud “booms” they heard. Speaking about their conditions in captivity, she said that “the three of us had pita or corn only once a day, sharing the portions among ourselves.”

However, Hamas would also perform acts of psychological warfare on the hostages. “Once a day, they took pictures of us and gave us meat from above to show us they were giving us good food. We talked among ourselves in whispers.”

To keep track of time, the three hostages would count their days in captivity by making rolls from toilet paper and rolling them in a cup. Norlin was worried that they would remain hostages.

Norlin was included in the hostage deal in November, which resulted in 50 hostages being released in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.