“My daughter is a hero who returned from hell after Hamas already announced that she was murdered,” Ran Gilboa, the father of released hostage Daniella Gilboa told Ynet in his first exclusive interview since his daughter’s release.

Ran shared some of the horrific experiences his daughter went through after she was abducted from the Nachal Oz base on October 7. During the assault, Daniella was shot twice in her legs and shrapnel flew everywhere. One piece of shrapnel penetrated her head.

“The girls saw difficult sights including the death of their closest friend,” Ran continued. “The terrorists separated the dead from the living. They saw executions and other horrifying sights. After long hours of being tied up, they were transferred to a jeep.”

About three months ago, Hamas released an official video claiming that Daniela was murdered. “In that moment, I saw a black screen in front of my eyes; time stopped,” Ran said. “After a year of suffering in captivity, I thought she had been murdered. I didn’t know what to do with myself. In retrospect, it became clear that everything was edited and staged; they asked her to lie down, wrapped her in sheets, put makeup on her, and zoomed in on her tattoo. They did it on purpose, and at home, we were left devastated, powerless.”

Where was Daniela during her captivity? 

“From suffocating tunnels where it was impossible to stand to apartments. While the war was intense, there was no water, and Daniela and the girls had to drink filthy groundwater. This caused her to fall ill with a serious stomach ailment and she hovered between life and death for two weeks. There were days they had to eat food meant for donkeys, something that was inedible and unchewable, with rotten vegetables mixed into some hard flour.”

How do they pass the time?  

“She was with Karina Ariev from day one, who is a close friend of hers. She learned fluent Arabic and the terrorists didn’t know they spoke the language, so she learned what was happening.”

At some point, Doron Steinbacher, a veterinary nurse by profession, joined them. “That was significant,” Ran explains. “Daniella was injured. To this day, she has bullets in her leg and she needs to undergo surgery later. Doron bandaged her and helped her throughout the year. They all had shrapnel all over their bodies, and Doron helped them a lot.”

“They would play cards, sing songs, and played a lot of chess. Daniella is very savvy; she knew how to manipulate her captors into letting her listen to the radio and watch TV, Al Jazeera, and i24. She saw her amazing mother, Orly, how fierce she was, and that was important to her. She didn’t know if she would return or not; there was uncertainty.”

“Daniella said that if they had been released two or three weeks earlier, they would have looked like the three male hostages who returned on Shabbos. They were given more food ahead of their release.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)