Israeli Hostage Yarden Roman-Gat Shares Details of Her Captivity in Gaza Transcript

It’s been one horror and tragedy after the next, since Hamas’ killing and kidnapping attack of Israelis 10 weeks ago. On Friday, three hostages were accidentally killed by Israeli forces, even though we now know they were waving a white flag. This as the army’s pounding of Gaza continues unabated. As much as 90% of the population has been displaced and the death toll keeps rising. About 100 Israeli hostages have been released, mostly women and children, but as many as 130 remain in captivity, an open wound in Israel where we went this past week and spoke to one of the hostages who was freed after 54 days, 36-year-old Yarden Roman-Gat. She and her husband Alon Gat were abducted on October 7th at a kibbutz near the Gaza border.

The story will continue in a moment.

Okay, Thank you. Alon took us to the rubble. That was his parents’ home in Be’eri.

This is the entrance.

On October 7th. He, his wife, Yarden, and their three-year-old daughter, Geffen, were visiting his folks when Hamas stormed the kibbutz gate, broke into their home, dragged out his mother and shot her. His sister Carmel disappeared and the Hamas fighters shoved the three of them into a car and took off.

And they are taking us into Gaza.

You’re driving along there in the car?

Yeah. This is the area where they drove the car to, and there is a small army post over there, and this is the place where they stopped the car because there was a tank passing. The terrorists went out of the car to hide in the trees.

He and Yarden seized the moment.

And we just jumped off both sides and started running.

You had Geffen?

I had Geffen on me. I’m not a good runner and running with the 12 kilograms of my baby, the best odds is that Alon would take her and he’s a very good runner. I just passed her on. It was a no-brainer. It was her best chances.

You passed your child along to Alon?

Yeah,

So I took Geffen and I ran in front. We started to hear the terrorists shooting at us. So we hearing bullets whistling next to us-

Oh my God.

… On my both sides really close by. I’m talking about that distance of me.

And you’re carrying Geffen?

And I’m with Geffen. And I found a small crack in the ground.

Like a small ditch?

Yes. And I put Geffen down on the ground and I was on her lying there with Geffen trying to keep her quiet.

And all this time, you still don’t know what had happened to your wife?

It’s something that I thought about, should I go with Geffen and search for Yarden? Is Yarden, is she wounded? Is she hurt? I thought about all these things and I said no, I have one mission now and this is to save Geffen.

How long were you in the ditch?

From 11:30 AM to around 8:00 PM.

Nine hours?

About. And Geffen was amazing. She didn’t cry about food or water. Once she told me, “Daddy, it’s a shame we didn’t bring water.”

Hours earlier, Yarden, too exhausted to keep running, fell to the ground as her captors closed in.

I played dead, but holding my breath was next to impossible. So they said, “No, she’s not dead. There’s no blood. So pick her up.” And they grabbed my arms and started dragging me on the ground, towards back to the car. I was in pajamas and my clothes tried to swipe off my body and it was one of the most frightening moments because my thoughts were, even if they didn’t have that intention, now they might have, and I’m half naked, so-

You’re worried about rape?

Yeah. I was worried to get raped.

Yeah, of course.

And fortunately enough, they didn’t do it. The goal was get me into Gaza.

Like other hostages, she was driven into Gaza through thick crowds celebrating.

My kidnappers could not help themselves showing me off as a trophy and showing my face as an object. I was not a person.

But the windows were up, right? No one could reach-

No, they were not up. There were a lot of people around. And as we-

Yelling and screaming?

Yeah, partying.

After similar gauntlets of terror, many other hostages were taken down into the dark airless tunnels. Yarden was never underground. And where did they take you?

Eventually we got to a house. I was alone, but I was never alone because I had my… guardians?

Guards.

Guards with me 24/7 from the second I got to Gaza to the second I left.

Were they men or women or both?

Only men.

Only men?

You cannot object to anything, it could cost you your life.

She was given a hijab that covered most of her body.

I got the very strong feeling that that fabric is my only protection, that, I don’t know, it’s effectiveness, but it was the only thing I got.

You could feel hidden a little bit behind that formless-

The word hidden has no place. I was watched and seen at all times. I was not hidden, not for a moment. They could do anything to me.

You were helpless.

I was helpless.

Did you try to engage them so they would see you as a human?

I trying to make them care.

Did it work? Do you think they began to want to protect you?

They did not want to protect me. They wanted to guard their trophy. But I do think I managed to make them care. I don’t know, in some levels. And I do think it helped me survive.

Do you think that at some level you just shut down, just almost as if it was happening to another person?

No.

No? You were feeling-

It was happening to me?

Yeah.

(07:45)
There were details about her captivity that she didn’t want to share with us.

(07:51)
Did they feed you? What? You can’t talk about that?

Yeah, no.

Okay. She lived with persistent anxiety over the fate of Alon and Geffen. Then three weeks in, because she could occasionally overhear news on a radio, she happened to catch one of Alon’s cousins speaking.

And he mentioned, by the way, the fact that I am, and Carmel, my sister-in-law, were held in Gaza.

You heard your name come up on radio?

Yeah, but it didn’t mention Alon and Geffen, so I could pretty much assume that they were fine.

Along with relief about her husband and child, she was tormented about Carmel because of the almost constant explosions of the Israeli bombs leveling neighborhoods all across Gaza.

(08:44)
Were you afraid that that was going to kill you?

Yes. It’s a very frightening experience to be on a war zone. You cannot ignore it. It’s very intense.

Meanwhile, in Israel, there was a growing bring them home now movement to pressure the government to prioritize the hostages.

Bring them back home now.

Now, now

Posters of the hostages are everywhere. This is Romi Gonen, who was shot and kidnapped. For her mother, Meirav it’s October 7th every day.

They’re not fed, they’re starved. We know about sexual harassment of the women that left there and of the men also, they are treated with cruelty, the ones that stayed there. And it’s important to understand that they don’t have time.

Yarden’s family waged their own campaign, setting up a war room to get her and Carmel freed, even traveling to Washington for help. Eventually, all the pressure paid off. Last month, Israel agreed to cease the bombing and free some Palestinian prisoners and Hamas issued a daily list of hostages it would free the next day.

Every day, mostly it’s night, in the middle of the night we will get a phone call of whether we are on or off the list.

Yarden’s brother, Gili.

(10:19)
The way it played out was Hamas would announce who’s coming out tomorrow?

That was the twisted reality show that we lived in. Yes, that is what happened.

Once the hostage releases started, the entire country was glued to television as each transfer was covered live. But for five excruciating days, neither Yarden nor Carmel were on the list. Then came day six of the ceasefire. After 54 days, Yarden’s captors told her, “You’re getting out.”

They wondered, why aren’t I happy? They almost demanded it. “Be happy. Be happy already. You’re going home.”

Some of the hostages were given drugs to make sure that they looked happy, well treated. If they-

I don’t want to go there.

You don’t?

No.

Okay. On the night of her release, her family, the entire war room gathered round a television and as she crossed out of Gaza…

Yarden.

Yarden.

Yarden.

Oh my God.

… escorted by her captors, Jarden was handed over to the Red Cross and transported to Israel.

I woke up Geffen around two o’clock in the morning. I woke here and I told her, “We found mommy. We found mommy. And she’s coming back.”

The reunion, the embrace took place at a hospital. The first stop for all the released hostages. The last time Yarden had seen her daughter was 54 days earlier when she handed her over to Alon.

(12:03)
So it hasn’t been that long since she came home. Is she still the same person?

Yeah.

She is?

I think she is. Yeah.

Are you the same person?

No, I’m a different person. I’m tearing apart between finding more info about Carmel. My mother was murdered, so also I didn’t have time to mourn on that. I was disconnected emotionally and I think still I am.

Alon’s old kibbutz is now rows and rows of burned out houses.

This is Geffen’s swing.

With painful reminders. The day after Yarden was released, everyone thought his sister Carmel would follow.

The whole day I kept myself expecting Carmel. I was almost sure she’s the one.

Oh dear. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

(13:06)
The ceasefire deal unraveled. No more hostages have come out since. The family war room is still operating, now focused on Carmel.

(13:17)
And now you’re part of the war room?

That’s right.

So why did you decide to do the interview?

My sister-in-law, Carmel, and a bunch of other hostages are still in Gaza and it’s wrong and we have to stop it and if we can do anything to help that, we will.

Do You see this stand?

A mother still waiting for her daughter to return.

Is there any fear that time is running out?

Yes.

At 60MinutesOvertime.com.