Former Hamas hostage recalls 54 horrific days in captivity

DENVER ( KDVR ) — More than a hundred hostages have been released from Hamas since the Nova Music Festival attack on Oct. 7, 2023, but so far, only a handful have spoken out.

About 255 hostages have been taken since that attack, and among the 60 that are still in captivity, 35 are believed to have been killed.

Moran Stela Yanai, a former hostage herself, said it’s her duty to speak out for the dozens still in captivity. Yanai came to Denver on Wednesday to share her story with hundreds of people at the Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Synagogue.

She said it began when she and her friend went to the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 6 to sell her jewelry. Yanai said she had a funny feeling that was telling her not to go, but she thought maybe it was just nervous excitement.

Yanai set up her booth and was looking forward to getting her name out there. Then, in the morning, she witnessed thousands of people watch the sun come up at around six o’clock.

“This whole peaceful moment – it turned into a nightmare,” she said.

The first drones appeared in the sky and chaos ensued. Yanai said she found herself running for her life through the desert and potato fields, sending messages to her parents on a 3% battery charge on her phone.

“That’s the last word my parents received – ‘I’ll talk to you later,’” Yanai said.

As she ran, she encountered several groups of Hamas terrorists. She managed to convince them that she was Arab using her limited knowledge of Arabic and an Egyptian necklace a friend gave her.

But finally, on the third encounter, it was different.

“It’s 13 Hamas terrorists running towards me. I just sat down and waited, I had nowhere to go,” Yanai said.

They reached her and said nothing as they dragged her through the field. One man ripped the eight necklaces and eight bracelets off of her. They found a car and threw her in, then they drove across the Gaza border.

Yanai said a Hamas terrorist forced her to watch as they drove through crowds of people, cheering as they went through.

“They were welcoming me to enter Gaza,” she said.

This was just the beginning of her 54 days in captivity. During her time of being moved from location to location, she said she learned ways to keep herself going.

“I had to concentrate on one thing and one thing only – is to survive,” she said.

And she did. She survived severe food poisoning, dehydration, multiple beatings and the mental toll of being powerless, always wondering if she would return home safely.

“In a fracture of a moment, there was a gun pointed to my head, he threatened to kill me as he did every day,” Yanai said.

In November, Yanai was finally released in a ceasefire deal in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

“I got to get home. I got to see my mother and father. I got to hug them,” Yanai said.

Despite her release, she said it’s not over for her and she will not stop speaking until the dozens of other hostages are returned home safely.

“I promised to all the hostages I would do everything within my power,” Yanai said.

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