The children released from Hamas captivity during last month’s cease-fire may have appeared at first glimpse to be relatively unharmed, but “they looked like shadows of children” and are suffering psychological scars that will be difficult to heal, Dr. Efrat Harlev, CEO of Israel’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center, told a news conference at the Israeli government’s media headquarters in Tel Aviv earier this week.
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Schneider, Israel’s main children’s hospital, cared for 19 children ages 3 to 18, six mothers, and one grandmother who had been abducted by Hamas terrorists during their murderous rampage on Oct. 7 and spent nearly two months as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
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Avigayil Edan with a relative at Schneider Children’s Medical Center
(Photo: Schneider Children’s Medical Center Spokesman's Office)
Harlev said Monday all the children had lost 15% or more of their weight in captivity due to being fed near-starvation diets, and many showed signs of muscular atrophy. “Some needed help just to get up from a chair,” Harlev said.
Even when they were given food, the children barely touched it. “They were eating such small bites,” Harlev said. “And when their parents asked, ‘Why aren’t you eating,’ they said, ‘We have to save it for later.’”
She said the psychological scars will be the most difficult to heal. At first, the children would only speak in whispers, if at all.
“More than anything, they all learned that they had to be quiet all the time. They could not laugh, or cry, or speak,” Harlev said. They would also fearfully ask permission for everything, from taking a shower to going to the bathroom to looking out the window or even opening a drawer.
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Dr. Efrat Harlev, CEO of Israel’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center, at the press conference, Dec. 4, 2023
(Aaron Poris/The Media Line)
Hamas tormented them psychologically every day, Harlev said.
“We heard it from every one of them, that they did not believe they would survive, or that anyone was looking for them … that there was no Israel anymore to even return to, and that they would all die in the tunnels together,” she said.
Even now that they are home, it will take time for the children to believe that they are safe, Harlev said.
“These children were not [left unharmed as] innocent bystanders. They were deliberately hurt by Hamas. This is not a [legitimate act of] war. This was a crime,” she said.