12/24/2023–|Last updated: 12/24/202301:49 AM (Mecca time)
An Israeli prisoner released from the Gaza Strip praised the good treatment she received from her guards from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), stressing that they were ready to sacrifice their lives in order to protect her and her three children from Israeli bombing.
Prisoner Chen Almog Goldstein said – in an interview with her and her daughter Agam with an Israeli channel – that, “The guards who captured us (in Gaza) were protecting us with their bodies from the bombing… They were protecting us from army fire, and we were very important to them.”
She added, “When we asked them if they were going to kill us, their response was: We die before you die.”
She pointed out that the guards “were very close to us, and we did not stay alone for a moment. Therefore, I was afraid that the army would come at any moment to try to save us. I was afraid of that.”
In response to a question about how she spent her time during detention, she said, “I was playing with my sons… and my daughter Agam was exercising all the time… one of the guards even had a fist fight with me, but before that he put a towel on his hand.”
When the broadcaster asked her why the towel? She responded by saying: “They respected women. To them, women are sacred and it is not permissible to touch them. To them, women are queens.”
The prisoner also spoke about her two young sons, saying, “They were playing and drawing, and our guards even taught them some games with the card game (Shaddah).”
Press coverage | Two female prisoners released from Gaza: The resistance fighters allowed us to practice sports and taught the children new games, including “cards of distress.” They called one of us “Salsabil,” and to them women are sacred and queens. One of them put a towel on his hands so that he would not touch me when we played “fisticuffs.” “. pic.twitter.com/wpEYeGDfSm
– Quds News Network (@qudsn) December 23, 2023
It is noteworthy that Hamas and the rest of the resistance factions had released about 50 Israeli prisoners, including women and minors, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons last November, under a humanitarian truce agreement. The movement repeatedly announced the killing of a number of prisoners held by it due to the heavy and indiscriminate Israeli bombing across the Gaza Strip.