EVANSTON, IL — One of the first two hostages released by Hamas following the Palestinian group’s surprise attacks on Israel last year is speaking out about her time in captivity for the first time.
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Judith Raanan, 59, of Evanston, and her daughter, recent Deerfield High School grad Natalie, were kidnapped while staying at a guest house at a village near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, and spent two weeks as hostages of Hamas. Both have dual Israeli and American citizenship.
On the morning of the attacks, Raanan was awoken by a call from her mother, whose 85th birthday was part of the reason for their visit, with a warning not to leave the house. As Raanan walked toward her daughter’s room, a rocket struck the bedroom she had just left, she said in an exclusive television interview with NewsNation.
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After hearing gunfire and Arabic outside, Raanan only had a brief moment to warn her daughter not to panic when heavily armed men burst through the door.
“Because I knew that panic is really not suitable for this situation,” Raanan said. “If you panic, you can be shot, and the best thing is to see what’s next.”
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Hamas gunmen then ordered Raanan to tell residents of the Nahal Oz to come out of their safe rooms or face the threats of explosives, she said.
Raanan said the hostage-takers thought the Israeli military might arrive, but after they tried unsuccessfully to steal a car, the group ended up all walking across the desert back to Gaza.
“I couldn’t walk fast, and I said, ‘I cannot walk fast,’ And so he said, ‘If you don’t walk fast, I will shoot you,’ and so he shot the ground,” said Raanan, who was wearing flip-flops and pajamas at the time. “That was pretty scary, but I couldn’t do anything, my hands were cuffed.”
Raanan’s hand was badly cut when one of her captors cut the zip tie from her hands, she said, and she later spoke with a man she described as a high-ranking Hamas leader at a hospital in Gaza, where she said nurses celebrated the arrival of her and other hostages.
Hamas gunmen moved her and her daughter between multiple locations, including a location that was hit by an Israeli rocket, she told Newsnation’s Elizabeth Vargas.
During her time in captivity, Raanan said her language skills paid off.
“I happened to take one course in Oakton Community College for Arabic, so I only know very little but at that moment, when you’re at that threat, then all of a sudden, like, everything you need for your survival will come to you,” Raanan said.
Though the men holding her hostage said they would not kill her, Raanan said, her daughter had other worries.
“She said, ‘Mom, I’m afraid to be raped,'” Raanan said.
“All the evidence of the rape, the murder,” she said. “Even people from Al-Azhar saying this is not the Quran, this is not a behavior that we accept, this should not be, by anyone, it’s just not acceptable.”
Pramila Patten, the United Nations special representative on sexual violence in conflict, issued a report earlier this month that found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence” took place in at least three locations on Oct. 7, including at and around the Nova music festival.
“With respect to hostages, the mission team found clear and convincing information that some have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” according to the 23-page mission report, “and it also has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.”
As many as five Americans continue to be held hostage by Hamas, according to the White House. Two were serving with the Israeli military, two were living in villages near the Gaza border and one was attending the a rave in the desert that was reportedly the site of some of the worst atrocities of the day.
They include: Edan Alexander, 20, who grew up in New Jersey and served in the Goldani Brigade’s 51st Division; Omer Neutra, 22, an Israel tank commander who grew up on Long Island; Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old son of Chicago area parents who reportedly lost an arm at the Supernova festival; Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, a resident of the Nir Oz kibbutz; and Keith Samuel Siegel, 64, a resident of the Kfar Aza kibbutz whose was released from captivity in Gaza during last year’s negotiations.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden confirmed that Itay Chen, a 19-year-old who had been thought to have been taken hostage, was actually killed on Oct. 7 while on active duty in an Israeli tank unit.
Bituah Leumi, the Israeli social security agency, reported there were 695 Israeli civilians killed in the Oct. 7 surprise attacks, along with 373 security forces and 71 foreigners, mostly workers from Thailand, according to Agence France-Presse.
Last month, the Israeli military opened an investigation into violations of Israeli and international law in connection with reports that its forces may have killed some of its own civilians, including an incident in which a dozen Israeli hostages died when a house in Kibbutz Be’eri was shelled on the orders of a senior officer.
In the wake of the attacks, an Israeli military spokesperson said “approximately 1,500 bodies of Hamas militants were found in Israel around the Gaza Strip.”
Since then, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza, who do not distinguish between civilian and military casualties.
Reuters reported a Hamas official admitted that 6,000 of its combatants were killed, though other representatives of the group denied that figure to the BBC. The Israeli government has claimed to have killed about 10,000 Hamas fighters.
About 240 people were taken hostage on Oct. 7, of whom about 110 of whom were released, mostly during a brief truce in November.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked how many of the rest of the hostages are still alive.
“I think enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we’re doing,” Netanyahu told ABC. “And we’re going to try to do our best to get all of those who are alive back, and frankly, also the bodies of the dead, but I won’t go into that right now.”
Raanan told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that she prays every day for those still being held by Hamas.
“I’m asking God to give the wisdom to the people that can have influence to stop this and to release our people, first of all, if they’re still alive,” she said.
“I will not have peace until they’re all out.”
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