Hostage accounts raise alarm about how long those left in Gaza can survive

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV : For 16 months, Alon Ohel’s mother wasn’t sure if her son, kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, was alive or dead.

Last weekend, she found out that he has been kept shackled in an underground tunnel, shrapnel stuck in his eye and shoulder and subsisting on one piece of pita bread a day. The conditions of 24-year-old Ohel’s captivity, as described by two hostages held alongside him and released on Saturday, and the experiences of others held by Hamas who were denied needed medical care and adequate food have sparked alarm in Israel about how much longer remaining survivors can last. On Monday, Hamas said it would stop releasing hostages as part of a cease-fire deal and accused Israel of violating its terms.

Mediators said the Palestinian Islamist militant group has been angered by President Trump’s call to remove Palestinians from Gaza, Israeli leaders’ support for the plan, and a lack of agreed-upon humanitarian aid. Trump demanded that Hamas release all of the hostages it is holding by noon local time Saturday, saying if they aren’t freed “all bets are off and let hell break out." “Is there one mother who could accept that her son is hungry for food, shackled with chains for so many days?" Ohel’s mother, Idit Ohel, said in a TV interview on Sunday. “How can a mother sleep at night knowing this?" Israel and Hamas agreed in January to pause fighting for 42 days, during which 33 Israeli hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.