When 84-year-old Elma Avraham was taken hostage from her home on kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, she was an independent member of the community, according to her family.
When Hamas released her on Sunday, she was “fighting for her life,” according to health professionals.
The great-grandmother was released along with 16 other hostages on the third day of the truce between Israel and Hamas.
Although other hostages returned in good health, Avraham’s daughter told reporters that her mother arrived with a pulse of 40 beats per minute and a body temperature of just 28 degrees. The deputy administrator of Soroka hospital in Beersheba said her condition remains critical and that she is on mechanical ventilation and sedated in the intensive care unit.
“They kept her in horrible conditions,” Tali Amano, Elma Avraham’s daughter, said outside the hospital. “My mother arrived hours before we almost lost her.”
The speech was validated by Israel’s military spokesman, Daniel Hagari. “She was kept in harsh conditions. They denied her essential medicines. She was not visited by the Red Cross,” he said.
He further stated that the woman “is a reminder of our critical mission” and asked “who is taking care of the other hostages in the Gaza Strip?”
Amano described her mother as a person who was “happy, connected and embraced by the entire community” before she was taken away. She reported that although the mother had chronic health problems, they were under control.
“They held her for 52 days in conditions that no human should be kept in,” said Hagai Levine, head of medical affairs at the Forum for Missing Families and Hostages. “Simply without human dignity, an unreasonable abuse.”
Amano said he met with the Red Cross and begged them to medicate the mother, but they said they were unable to deliver the medication. “My mother didn’t have to come back like this, and I have no idea how she’s going to spend these days.”
A Red Cross spokesperson told Reuters: “We are speaking directly to the families and they are asking us to take personal medication but we are unable to deliver it.”
“We continue to ask for access to the hostages, as we have done since day one, and we are ready to carry out these visits,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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