When Hamas terrorists released 85-year-old peace activist Yocheved Lifschitz for the fawning press to record on Monday, she was kind enough to give them another small propaganda win on her way back to Israel.
Lifschitz and her husband, Oded, were taken hostage from the Nir Oz kibbutz by Hamas terrorists on motorcycles during the October 7 terror invasion of Israel. Their daughter Sharone told the Times of Israel, “They’re no longer the kind of people who can survive without medications… Mom was ripped out of her machine; she was sleeping.”
Before the war, the Lifschitzes worked as peace activists, transporting sick Gazans to Israeli hospitals for treatment. Oded remains a hostage. Their daughter Sharone said that her parents’ “whole house is gone… It’s all burned.”
According to reports, Lifschitz — who Sharone says suffers from severe back pain — was forced by her captors to walk several kilometers over wet ground into Gaza. She was hit with sticks along the way and suffered “bruises and breathing difficulties.” Nevertheless, in Monday’s press conference, Yocheved praised the treatment she and others were given.
Once in Gaza, she and her husband were held in a “spider’s web” of tunnels deep below the city. Those cement-lined tunnels, supposedly impervious to air attack, were built by Hamas using international aid meant for housing the people of Gaza. Inside those tunnels are the assembly lines for Hamas’s rockets, command posts, weapons and ammunition depots, and “even deeper tunnels [that] house its leaders’ lodgings and headquarters,” according to military analyst Edward Luttwak.
The entire purpose of those tunnels is the arming, feeding, and protection of the terrorists who murdered, raped, and desecrated 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped up to 200 more, including the Lifschitzes.
Yet when Yocheved was released on Monday, she turned back to shake her captor’s hand and wished him “Shalom,” the Hebrew word for peace. I don’t know her captor but I do know Hamas, whose stated purpose is the destruction of Israel and the murder of every Jew. When Lifschitz shook that man’s hand, it was a moment to warm the hearts of murderous antisemites around the world.
Here’s the video from her press conference.
"Each person had a guard watching him or her. They took care of all the needs. They talked about all kinds of things, they were very friendly."
Yocheved Lifshitz details what it was like while being held hostage by Hamas.
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/lSs5io56uH
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 24, 2023
Sharone told the BBC, “The way she walked off and then came back and then said thank you was quite incredible to me. It’s so her.”
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Let me tell you something that wasn’t in the BBC report.
Another victim taken from Nir Oz kibbutz was eight-year-old Ohad Munder-Zichri, whose “beloved uncle was killed in the attack,” according to CBS News. “The boy, his mom, and grandparents disappeared with the only thread of information about them coming from a cellphone signal traced to Gaza.” Ohad just celebrated, if that’s the word, his ninth birthday on Monday as a hostage of Hamas.
His father, Zichri, said, “I keep imagining what he is going through. He’s a sensitive boy. Did he see dead bodies? He wears glasses. Did they take them from him? Can he see anything?”
Nir Oz is a small kibbutz with a pre-war population of fewer than 400 that nonetheless now has its own Wikipedia page. The page is titled “Nir Oz massacre,” and on it you can find this grim statistic: of the 393 souls who once called it home, more than 80 are still missing and 25 have been confirmed murdered by Hamas.
It’s almost a sure thing that Lifschitz knew Ohad or at least knew of his family, yet she shook her captor’s hand and wished him peace.
There’s having the courage of your convictions, and then there’s denying the evidence of your senses with a near-suicidal insistence. I do wish Lifschitz the safe return of her husband, a full recovery from her ordeal, and, of course, peace. But the cold truth is that she’ll never have peace until the war to destroy Hamas is won.
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