Hunger, daylight, access to information, the former Franco-Israeli left silence a week after his release.
A little over a week ago, on February 1, Ofer Kalderon, one of the last two Franco-Israeli hostages selected by Hamas in Gaza, was released after a 484-day detention. In a short text published in the form of a press release by the Families of hostage and missing forum, the father delivered some details concerning the conditions of his detention. Like other ex-hostages before him, Ofer Kalderon testified to the lack of food and hygiene conditions.
“I was released after 484 days of captivity, during which I was detained in tunnels without seeing daylight, without access to the media, in conditions of extreme hunger, for whole months without taking a shower , nor receive appropriate care, “explains the 54 -year -old man. Ofer Kalderon also reveals a hardening of his captivity conditions at the end of the first truce, during which two of his four children, who had also been kidnapped, could have been released. “From the end of the first truce, my conditions of detention and those of many other hostages have seriously deteriorated,” he said, reporting a certain brutality on the part of his jailers.
“We must obtain the release of everyone”
Today, Ofer Kalderon pleads for the truce to be maintained and that all the hostages can be released. “Hamas is a cruel enemy who will not hesitate to hurt the hostages that will be left to him,” he said. And to insist: “We must obtain everyone’s release as quickly as possible.”
If several Israeli hostages are still retained in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, only one Franco-Israeli is one of the workforce. This is Ohad Yahalomi. Registered on the list of hostages which must be given to Israel during the first phase of truce, it was announced dead by an allied brigade of Hamas about a year ago, following an Israeli bombardment. Information that the Israeli army has never confirmed, however.