‘Look Me In the Eyes’: Ex-Hamas Hostage Leaves Pro-Palestinian Activist Speechless

November 19, 2024

by: Daniela Ginzburg ~ Ynetnews

Tuesday, 19 November 2024 | A debate event held last June in Los Angeles featured participants such as Mosab Hassan Yousef (“The Green Prince”), Moran Stela Yanai—a survivor kidnapped and held captive by Hamas, University of California Los Angeles Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies Director Prof. Dov Waxman and pro-Palestinian activist Aidan Dewolf, the organizer of a protest encampment at the same university.

This event went viral on Monday following the release of the second part of the interview, where Yanai directly addresses and speaks with Dwolf.

In this newly released second segment, published four months after the initial interview, Yanai is seen addressing the pro-Palestinian activist, saying, “I really want to talk to you on eye level and tell you a story, if you want to hear it.

“…When I was kidnapped to Gaza, I was caught three times. The last time, I was caught by 13 Hamas terrorists. Thirteen. I want you to acknowledge the facts as they are, truly. I’ve visited the US, have you ever been to Israel? Have you visited Gaza before? Probably not,” she recounts.

“On October 7, and this is what they (the terrorists) told me, they had no idea about the Nova festival, they didn’t know there were 3,000 people there. They planned, and this is what they told me, to continue onward and kill as many people as possible. In Be’er Sheva, Tel Aviv, Haifa—they wanted to slaughter everyone.

“And you know what, maybe you won’t believe me, but I can show you the videos that I have. Do you know how many bodies were there? Do you know how much violence I experienced firsthand? I was caught in the middle of the lynch; I was portrayed as a soldier because I chose that day, unintentionally, to wear olive-green clothes that looked like a uniform. That was enough to classify me as a soldier.

“And they treated me like a soldier. I’m 40 years old, look at me, I’m 40. I have a cat and a dog; I had two cats, I lost one that day. I have a mom and dad, and a brother, who left their whole lives to try and help me. My mom found out I was kidnapped through my 12-year-old niece, who saw a video on TikTok and recognized me. That’s how they found out I was kidnapped. Did you know that?”

Yanai continued her dialogue with Dwolf for several more minutes, during which it was clear that he felt very uncomfortable with the direct yet calm way she presented her story to him, even struggling to maintain eye contact. Social media reactions quickly followed, with many praising Yanai’s quiet strength and the way she shared her story and words with Dewolf.

It should be noted that Yanai is a jewelry designer who went to the Nova Festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7, 2023, to sell her jewelry. During the Hamas attack on the festival, she was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and taken to the Gaza Strip, where she was held captive for 54 days.

During her captivity, Yanai had to endure harsh conditions, including humiliation and abuse. She recounted in several interviews how she was forced to beg for food and her captors’ demand that she look them in the eyes, which left her with deep psychological scars. After her release, Yanai underwent a lengthy rehabilitation process. In January 2024, she returned to her home in Be’er Sheva and has since continued to share her story to raise awareness about the situation of hostages and encourage the public to advocate for them.

Posted on November 19, 2024

Source: (This article was originally published by Ynetnews on November 19, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo License: Instagram

Photo Credit: missing morgan/screenshot/Instagram.com