The 12-year-old French-Israeli Eitan Yahalomi, one of the Hamas hostages freed on Monday night, experienced "horrors" during his captivity in Gaza, his aunt told BFMTV on Tuesday (November 28th), referring to beatings inflicted on him by Palestinian "civilians".
Earlier on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told RTL radio that the three freed French minors appeared to be doing well physically while citing the "psychological shock" linked to the long detention.
"I wanted to hope that Eitan would be treated well. Apparently not. They're monsters."
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Eitan spent (experienced) horrors there," Deborah Cohen told BFMTV. "When he arrived in Gaza, civilians beat him", "he was beaten at the entrance to Gaza" while "he is a 12-year-old child", she lamented, based on exchanges with her nephew's mother. "Hamas forced him to watch" abuses committed and filmed on October 7 by its fighters, she said. "Every time a child cried, they would threaten him with a gun to keep him quiet," Cohen continued.
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I wanted to hope that he (Eitan) would be treated well. Apparently not. They're monsters," her aunt said. "Yesterday we were so happy (about his release). But now that I know that, I'm worried. There's still his father there," she said. "How can you feel good after an experience like that? He has a long way to go," she added. "He's a quiet kid. It's going to take time to get your emotions out.
»The French-Israelis, Erez and Sahar Kalderon, 12 and 16, and Eitan Yahalomi, 12, arrived in Israel on Monday night as part of the truce agreement with the Palestinian Islamist movement.
They were among some 240 people captured in Israel in the October 7 attacks, 50 of whom have so far been released. Some 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have been released as part of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.