Rut Hodaya Perez is in no shape to be held as a hostage in the Gaza Strip.
A 17-year-old Israeli girl who has myotonic dystrophy, Rut cannot walk and uses a wheelchair. But that didn’t stop Hamas gunmen from snatching her on Oct. 7 from a trance music festival near the Gaza border during their spree of kidnapping and slaughter.
Rut is now among the large and varied group of captives that Hamas is believed to have dragged back to its underground labyrinth of tunnels in Gaza.
“She is not built to live in a place like that,” said her sister, Yamit.
It has been two weeks since the Hamas militant group attacked Israel, massacring more than 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200. While fears are growing for the safety of all of the hostages, held in conditions that would test even the strongest, the worries are especially intense for the most physically vulnerable like Rut.
On Friday morning, Israeli military officials said that “most” of the hostages were alive, and by Friday night, all those with loved ones held in Gaza received an added injection of hope when Israel and Hamas announced that two hostages, a mother and daughter who are dual American-Israeli citizens, had been freed.
American officials said that representatives from Qatar, an American ally that maintains good relations with Hamas, had helped persuade the group, which controls Gaza, to free Judith Raanan, 59, and Natalie Raanan, 17. It was not clear why the Raanans were released before others.
But for all those remaining, it’s almost inconceivable what any of them, especially the neediest, are living through.
They are being held at gunpoint by the same group that massacred their friends and loved ones. They are trapped in the densely packed Gaza enclave that Israeli warplanes are relentlessly bombing. All around them, food, water and medicine are running out, and fear, rage and hatred are escalating. Everyone inside…
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