Some of us, points to self, are absolutely livid at how few hostages have been released. Yippy skippy, the pause/ceasefire has been extended. Thanks to Creepy Joe’s 50 years of foreign policy expertise, Hamas will continue to dribble out hostages a few at a time. Now that tens of hostages have been released, we are getting a sense of what life was like in the terror tunnels for them.

The photo above this post shows Senator Lindsey Graham in one of the Hamas terror tunnels in 2019. Graham is only 5’7″. You can see that he is hunching in the tunnel. The tunnels were not meant to be permanent living quarters for the 50 plus days the hostages released were there. For the adults, the mental images of what they saw and experienced would be a constant. Your own future would be a heavy concern, but what you saw would impossible to erase. For the older children, the concerns would be much the same. That in itself is terror. Even had they been well taken care of, they were all terrorized with psychological terror.

From Red State, here are some details of life as a prisoner of Hamas:

They’ve been completely shut off from reality, family members say, and have had no idea what’s been going on in the last roughly 50 days, or that flyers with their faces have been tacked up around the world. Although they’d been fed, they were not fed well, and some have seen significant weight loss.

Relatives who have spoken or met with some of the released hostages said all seemed to have spent their weeks in captivity totally cut off from the outside world, and to have returned thinner than before.

“They were eating, but not regularly and not all of the time,” said Merav Mor Raviv, a cousin of Keren Munder, 54, who was released on Friday along with her son, Ohad Munder-Zichri, 9, and her mother, Ruth Munder, 78. “They ate a lot of rice and bread,” Ms. Raviv said, adding that Keren told her that both she and her mother had lost about 6 to 8 kilograms, or 13 to 18 pounds.

Ms. Raviv also said their sleeping conditions were far from ideal—they slept in a reception room on “beds” made by pushing three chairs together. When they needed to go to the bathroom, they would have to knock on a door and wait—sometimes for up to two hours.

In a particularly cruel twist, 78-year-old Ruth Munder did not know while underground that her son had been killed during the October 7 Hamas terror attacks. She did receive some good news, though: her husband, whom she had assumed had been killed, did survive—although he’s still a captive.

Though Fox News claims there is a “nuanced” picture of hostage life:

The experience of another captive, 85-year-old Yocheved Lipschitz who was released before the current cease-fire, illuminated a more nuanced picture.

Lifshitz said captives were treated well and received medical care, including medication. The guards kept conditions clean, she said. Hostages were given one meal a day of cheese, cucumber and pita, she said, adding that her captors ate the same.

The recently freed hostages also appeared to have been held underground. Eyal Nouri, the nephew of Adina Moshe, 72, who was freed on Friday, said his aunt “had to adjust to the sunlight” because she had been in darkness for weeks.

Being without sunlight is another form of psychological terror.

Doctors have warned of the steep psychological toll of captivity. Israel has made counseling and other support available to those who have been released.

“Steep psychological toll”? They would be a world class understatement.

I have a couple thoughts on this Pro-Hamas public relations being put out by our protesting college students. They have called Gaza an “open air prison”. Only spoiled Americans can possibly believe that. The Hamas-supporting Palestinians actually had it pretty damn fine on October 6.

Afternoon tea on a rooftop from October 1, 2023.

English-style afternoon tea at Ristretto rooftop café in Gaza City. #TheGazaYouDontSee https://t.co/eS7N5rk3oP pic.twitter.com/ifMxdTT7wm

— Imshin (@imshin) October 1, 2023

A day in Gaza July, 2023:

Haha, Ghetto? Zoek voor de grap in google eens op "Gaza beach resort" en kies er eentje.. pic.twitter.com/vpMfv0Qybr

— Danny (@Dafaso) November 27, 2023

Gee, I wonder what could have happened after October 6 for Israel to bomb Gaza and blow up their lovely lifestyle.

Finally, a ten month old baby, sibling and parents were thought to be prisoners of Hamas. The leader of Hamas says they may be being held by another terrorist group.

Israeli authorities recently revealed that 10-month old baby Kfir and his family, are now believed to be in the custody of a different terrorist group. The fact that Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, claims to not know where they are, shows the negligence and maltreatment the hostages… pic.twitter.com/7gfK8zcNJK

— (((noa tishby))) (@noatishby) November 27, 2023

Yo, Yahya Sinwar. Pick up the phone and tell your colleagues in terror to turn over the baby and family in the peak of health or you will throw the colleagues off of the roof. That’s how this works, I understand.

Open air prison, my Aunt Fanny.

Featured Image: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem/flickr.com/Cropped/Creative Commons