Released Israeli hostages describe starvation, depression and torture by Hamas during ’60 Minutes’ interview

Returned hostages Keith Siegel, Tal Shoham and Yarden Bibas were recently interviewed on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” For Bibas, it was his first interview since his release from Hamas captivity in Gaza. 

Bibas, whose wife Shiri and two young sons were murdered by Hamas during captivity, gave his first interview to an American network, hoping that former U.S. President Donald Trump would listen and take action to help secure the release of the remaining hostages.

“If you could say something to President Trump, what would you say?” show host Lesley Stahl asked Bibas. 

“Please stop, stop this war, and help bring all the hostages back,” Bibas responded. 

When asked if he believes Trump can help, Bibas answered, “I know he can help.” 

“I am here because of Trump. I am here only because of him,” he emphasized. “I think he’s the only one who can stop this war again. He has to convince Netanyahu to convince Hamas. I think he can do it.” 

Bibas wore a t-shirt with the images of his best friends from childhood – David Cunio, and David’s younger brother, Ariel, who are still being held hostage in Gaza.

He told Stahl that he does not believe the renewed fighting will bring the hostages back. 

Bibas described being held underground during the Israeli ground campaign and the bombings over the course of the war. 

“It’s scary. You don’t know when [the Israeli strikes] it’s going to happen. And when it happens, you’re afraid for your life,” Bibas said. “The whole earth would move – like an earthquake, but underground, so everything could collapse any moment.”

Bibas was captured and held separately from his wife, Shiri, and two sons, Ariel and Kfir. He was forced to record a video while Hamas terrorists told him that they had been killed in an airstrike. 

After his release from captivity, Yarden, who had spent months uncertain whether his family was still alive, was devastated to learn the truth: his family had been murdered by Hamas.

“They were all murdered in cold blood, bare hands,” Bibas explained. “They [Hamas] used to tell me, 'Oh, doesn't matter. You'll get a new wife. Get new kids. Better wife. Better kids.'” 

Yarden also expressed his concern for Cunio and his brother Ariel, especially since the fighting resumed.

“They’re both still in captivity, and I don’t know if they have enough food, enough water, especially now when the war is back on,” Bibas said. 

Bibas and Cunio have been best friends since the first grade. 

“We did everything together,” he remarked. “He was with me in every big thing in my life. He was in my wedding.” 

“Now I’m having probably the hardest thing I have to move [through] with my life, and David is not with me,” Bibas lamented. 

“I lost my wife and kids. Sharon [David Cunio’s wife] must not lose her husband,” Bibas stated. 

In addition to Bibas, Keith and Aviva Siegel also spoke to “60 Minutes.” 

The Siegels were living on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the border with Gaza, when they were kidnapped from their home on Oct. 7, 2023. They were kidnapped into Gaza and held together for 51 days until Aviva was released during the hostage-ceasefire deal at the end of November 2023.

“We were driven into Gaza and then taken into a tunnel, feeling in danger, feeling life-threatened, terrorists around us with weapons,” Keith said. 

He described witnessing abuse and torture during his captivity. 

“I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorists. I mean literal torture, not just in the figurative sense.”

“I saw sexual assault with female hostages,” Keith continued, stating that Hamas terrorists forced him to watch.

He also noted that the treatment of the remaining hostages worsened after the first ceasefire ended.

“The terrorists became very mean and very cruel and very violent, much more so. They were beating me and starving me,” he shared. 

When asked whether his starvation was intentional deprivation or due to a general lack of food, Keith said he was deliberately starved.

“They would often eat in front of me and not offer me food,” he explained. 

Siegel described how he was only given half a bucket of water per month to bathe with, and how the terrorists shaved his head and private parts to humiliate him. 

“I think they thought it, it amused them, or, you know, humiliated [us],” he said. “I felt humiliated.” 

Former Israeli hostage Tal Shoham, who was held together with hostages Evytar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, spoke about his time in captivity with them.

He detailed daily beatings, cramped conditions in the tunnels, and meager rations of food. 

“You can eat only one [piece of] bread every day, and have like 200 ml of water every day, and you will stay alive,” Shoham said. 

He explained that one of the Hamas guards told them they could stay alive for up to five years on such paltry amounts. 

“The main guard, he actually said, ‘I can bring you this kind of amount of food and you will survive and you will keep like that for five years and you won’t die,’” he related. 

Shoham, David, and Gilboa-Dalal discovered that one of the guards liked to have back massages, which they used to barter for better food rations. 

Shoham noted that both of the young men struggled with depression during their captivity and even discussed suicide with him. 

“They told me more than once, ‘Why stay alive now?’ I mean, why not just take their own life with their own hands and finish it and get released from it,’” he recounted. 

“They are not children, but from time to time, I felt like a father to them,” Shoham shared. 

“They are children,” said the father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal. 

“I really fear that they are now alone,” Shoham fretted. 

Like Bibas, Shoham and the families of David and Gilboa-Dalal said they agreed to the 60 Minutes interview because “maybe someone would hear it and he will save our sons.”