More details were revealed on Thursday evening from the testimony of three of the hostages rescued in Operation Arnon in June.

Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv, and Almog Meir Jan were interviewed as part of “Voices from Captivity,” a project launched by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Government Press Office (GPO.)

Almog said about their main guard Mohammed: “He would take this kind of pen and tie our mouths around it. We would have cuts in our mouths for days. Sometimes we were bound in chains. After a while, rust would wash off of us when we washed our hands or showered. We had wounds on our hands and the lock on the chains cut us to the bone.”

Andrey said that the last month that they were held captive was the hardest. “Our guard was losing it. He would give us contradictory orders and punish us. Even if we spoke in whispers, he would gag us with the pen.”

One time, the terrorist was enraged that Andrey washed his hands with water he was given to drink, and ordered Almog and Shlomi to cover him with three thick blankets while he lay on a mattress.

“It lasted an hour and a half,” Andrey said. “He always tried to catch us in mistakes so he could punish us. He said: ‘Let’s treat him like an animal.'”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)