Reporter’s Notebook: Hamas Oct 7 attacks survivor recalls Gaza captivity 2 years later

Exactly two years ago, Hamas terrorists stormed the Israeli border from Gaza, killing young families living on a small kibbutz and hunting down young people attending an outdoor music festival. The attackers killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages.

Fox’s Trey Yingst was on the scene several days after the massacre in Beeri. This is what he saw:

“The kitchen floors are stained with blood. People were home at the time. It was early in the morning on Saturday when Hamas militants stormed into their homes. The soldiers here tell us they found bodies that appeared to be executed. People with hands tied behind their backs, mothers holding their small children, bodies decapitated. Pure horror in this small town,” Yingst reported.

TWO YEARS AFTER HAMAS’ OCT. 7 MASSACRE, 48 HOSTAGES — DEAD AND ALIVE — REMAIN IN CAPTIVITY

Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza. Twenty are believed to be alive. Aviva Siegel was held for 51 days, while her husband, Keith, was held for more than 400.

“When they came in to kidnap us, they shot us. And one of the bullets hit Keith. And it didn’t hit me because I was lucky, but it could have been different. And we were taken underneath the ground and we just didn’t have any air to breathe. And I really felt that it’s gonna be my last hours of my life,” Siegel told Fox News on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.

She remembers arriving in Gaza and seeing Palestinian families cheering and jeering at the wounded hostages.

“Everybody was just waiting for us. They knew we were coming. And we were taken immediately underneath the ground. And I’ll never forget the picture that I’ve got in my head of the terrorist, telling me to come down this ladder. It’s very narrow to go underneath the ground. I’m shaking. I’ll never forget his smile,” Siegel said on the second anniversary of the attacks and the start of her captivity.

ISRAEL ELIMINATES GAZA TERRORIST WHO TOOK PART IN OCT. ATTACK ON KIBBUTZ, TOOK YARDEN BIBAS HOSTAGE

Her husband Keith was kept in solitary confinement for six months.

“I was moved 13 times in 51 days while I was there. While Keith stayed there for 484 days, we were tortured, we were starved. They used to eat in front of us. I lost 10 kilos. Keith came home looking like a skeleton. He was just so thin. I couldn’t walk when I came back. I was so ill,” Aviva said.

Tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed in the aftermath by the Israeli military, which now controls 80% of the Gaza Strip. Israel says it does not target civilians but more than 90% of Gaza is now destroyed.

“I’m a witness to the Hamas terrorist touching the girls and doing whatever they wanted. I’m witness of the Hamas terrorists beating one of the girls that was with us and threatening her that they’re gonna kill her just because they thought she was lying,” Siegel said. “For me, it was like I was killed. For me not to be able to help them and to help Keith when he was tortured was the worst thing that I could go through. It was worse than when I was tortured. And I was tortured. I was pulled by my hair. I was pushed. I was starved. I was laughed at. I was threatened. I went to hell.”