Hamas Held Israeli Child Hostage Alone for 16 Days: Grandmother

Hamas terrorists held an Israeli child hostage alone for 16 days, according to the child’s grandmother, commenting after his release Monday night.

Eitan Yahalomi, 12, was tortured during his confinement — beaten, forced at gunpoint to watch videos of Hamas atrocities, and threatened with death when he and other children cried.

As Breitbart News reported Tuesday:

Deborah Cohen, the aunt of Eitan Yahalomi, 12, who is a dual French-Israeli citizen, told French TV outlet BFMTV on Tuesday (translated from French): “Eitan apparently saw horrors over there [in Gaza]. … Hamas forced Eitan to watch a horror film [of October 7], that no one could [bear to] watch … Every time that a child cried over there, they threatened [the child] with a gun to be quiet.” She added that child hostages had been beaten when they arrived in Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas.

Now, Yahalomi’s grandmother, Esther Yahalomi, is speaking out, according to the Times of Israel:

Esther Yahalomi, the grandmother of the recently freed tween, says his first 16 days as a hostage were the toughest because he was left completely alone.

“A month ago they moved him to a group of people from Nir Oz, and it was much easier for him there. His caregiver from preschool was there, and he was able to see familiar faces,” she tells Hebrew-language media outside the Tel Aviv hospital where he is recuperating.

She added that Eitan had lost weight and was having trouble speaking since his release.

Another hostage, Elma Avraham, 84, was reportedly expected to survive Tuesday after being rushed to intensive care upon her release. Her family said that the Red Cross had failed to make an effort to ensure she had her medications while in captivity.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.