We are starting to hear details from the hostages, and they describe what amounts to torture. I am not going to detail everything we hear, just what was published by the families themselves. Here are some harrowing stories:
*A 9-year-old girl believed she was kidnapped for a year and still whispers due to threats from her Hamas kidnappers.
*3-year-old twins were released without their dad, after Hamas attempted to free them alone while their mother remained captive.
*A 12-year-old, kidnapped alone after his father was shot, was beaten by Gaza residents and forced at gunpoint by Hamas to watch videos of their murder spree and massacres.
*Remember the red-haired babies kidnapped with their mother? The Bibas family wasn't released. Hamas claims they can't reach them, and reports suggest they were traded within the Gaza strip to another faction.
*Two hostages were murdered in Gaza: Noa Marziano (killed in Shifa hospital by Hamas, with the complicity of medical staff), and Yehudit Vice, a cancer patient kidnapped and murdered by Hamas near Shifa hospital.
*The Israeli Health Ministry reports that elderly women kidnapped by Hamas lost between 8-15 kg on average, amounting to starvation.
There more details to come, some harrowing. These testimonies indicate war crimes and the torture of children and adults who, at times, lost their family to the mass murder committed by Hamas. Comparing the release of Palestinian prisoners, who enjoyed internationally lawful conditions including regular ICRC visits, to 3-year-old girls who witnessed their parents' murder and were held against their will, is either a case of severe misinformation or sheer malice.
The stories are just beginning to emerge.