Daughter of 76-year-old freed hostage says her mother is in hospital in a "serious" condition

An undated photo of Hana Katzir is projected onto a building in Tel Aviv, Israel, following her release by Hamas on November 24. Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

The daughter of an elderly Israeli woman who was released after being held hostage in Gaza says her mother’s condition is “serious” and that she has been rehospitalized.

Carmit Palty Katzir, daughter of 76-year old Hana Katzir, told Israel Army radio (GLZ): “My mother is hospitalized in serious condition. There was a deterioration in her condition, which is directly related to captivity. The time she was there, when she did not receive medication, [but] she did receive drugs or other things she obviously should not have received, [as well as] conditions of starvation, conditions of nutritional deficiencies.”

Hana Katzir became one of the most recognized hostages during her captivity because she appeared in a hostage video and then later Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced that she had died. There was surprise and joy in Israel when she appeared in the first group of hostages to be freed. 

Her daughter now says her health has deteriorated.

“A woman who left without any heart problems came back with serious heart problems and her medical condition is serious,” Katzir said. “The deterioration is the last two days, but already when she arrived at Wolfson medical center from Gaza, they saw her poor physical condition, they recognized the heart problems, which again I say, she had no heart problems before.”

Wolfson said Katzir had been discharged and is now hospitalized elsewhere.

Her daughter also spoke of abuse of the hostages.

“I want to say that everything is abuse: Abducting people from their homes is abuse, not providing them with food, this is abuse, committing psychological terror to them, pulling them out for filming at 2 a.m., making them wait four and five hours until they can, or can't go to the toilet.”