'I would never have believed Israel would abandon its own," rescued hostage Luis Har, 70, told Ynet in an interview on Wednesday. Har and his brother-in-law Fernando Marman, 60 were extracted from Gaza after 129 days in captivity, in an IDF operation last February.
“We were rescued, but some of us are still in there. Our hearts are broken. I never thought something like this could happen; they say that no one gets left behind in Israel, but in reality, there are 101 hostages still there," he said.
Since his return he has been campaigning in Israel and around the world for the release of the hostages. “Our mistake lies in our public diplomacy,” he said. “The world doesn’t know what happened on October 7; they only see the other side. Most of the people there are [aligned with] Hamas and those who weren’t were eliminated by the terrorists. I don’t trust any of them. Women and teenagers entered the kibbutz to loot and steal.”
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Louis Har speaking at the Knesset calling for a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza
(Photo: Shaul Golan )
“We can’t lose hope; I’ve always been an optimistic person. My mission now is to ensure the rest of the hostages come home. Life feels different now — until I return to the kibbutz, I won’t truly know how much I’ve changed. I want to go back to my home in the kibbutz, but it requires repairs, especially the safe room. Once that’s done, I’ll go back.”
He said life as a hostage was hard. “The little food we received came from Hamas. There were days in captivity when we only had pita bread; those in the tunnels sometimes didn’t even get that.”
In an interview after he returned to Israel he told the UK's Daily Mail about the fear he lived with as a captive of Hamas. “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.”
Footage of the IDF's rescue operation in Gaza
(Video: Israel Police)
Har, who was with four of his family members, recounted the moments of the abduction: “They opened a small gate and took us into a tunnel with terrorists in front, in the middle, and at the back, with guns. It was dark all the time. The only light was from the phone. There was no air. It felt like we would never get out of there.”
At one point, he said, another group of terrorists began chasing them, shouting, “Jews! Jews!” Har, originally from Argentina, shouted back: “Argentinians, Argentinians! Messi, Messi!”
The five family members eventually reached their destination. Mia Leimberg, 18, managed to hide her dog, Bella, in the tunnels without the terrorists noticing. After spending two days in one building, the family was moved to another apartment, where they stayed for 50 days in a windowless room.
They gave Spanish nicknames to the terrorist guarding them and spoke as little Hebrew as possible to prevent their captors from understanding them. Har noted that one of the terrorists showed interest in Mia, joking that he was “single and wanted to marry her.” When Har told him to stop, the terrorist mocked him, saying, “Wow, there's a wolf here.” Later, the terrorist returned with a large knife, playing with it to “frighten us.”
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Fernando Marman and Louis Har reunited with the familiy members freed in the 2023 hostage deal
Har described sleeping on dirty “paper-thin” mattresses and surviving on scraps of pita bread. “There was constant psychological warfare,” he said. “They told us it wasn't advisable to wander outside, that they would beat us to death. They really made sure to tell us every failure of the IDF or every time soldiers were killed. They told us we had nowhere to return to, that Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak no longer existed.”
“They kept telling us not to speak loudly because the UAV's, if they heard us, would pass the information to Netanyahu and Netanyahu would send planes to bomb us because he doesn't want any deal, he wants to kill us. They kept repeating this to us, every day. Eventually it gets into your head,” he added.
Yair Moses, son of hostage Gadi Moses and Margalit Moses who was released from captivity, told ynet on Wednesday that with the passage of time, thigs only get harder, "but we must keep fighting to end this. I only believe in actions. We have no idea what’s happening in negotiations or who’s being spoken to — none of the families are getting information,” he said.
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“The ministers are more interested in staying in power; we’re not their priority,” he added. “Any criticism of them immediately marks you as their enemy. Fourteen months is an insane amount of time to be in captivity. We have no information about where my father is held — above or below ground — or whether he has any heating.”
Has any minister reached out to your mother?
“Not that I recall, not at the beginning. She had a few meetings later on but no one’s been in touch. They’re not interested.”