Israeli hospitals on standby to receive hostages
Israel’s healthcare system is preparing to receive hostages expected to return from Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal.
The Sheba Medical Centre at Tel HaShomer in Ramat Gan, on June 25, 2023. Photo by Yossi Zeliger/TPS
In recent months, dedicated medical teams have undergone simulations to rehearse the reception of hostages.
“We’ve been ready for this for a year and a half,” a source at the Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan told The Press Service of Israel.
Other hospitals on standby include Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, the Beilinson Hospitals in Petah Tikva, Holon’s Wolfson Medical Center, the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, Soroka Hospital in Beer-Sheva and the Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov.
The returnees will be received in a designated area where they will reunite with their families and receive any necessary care.
In December, a Health Ministry detailing severe physical and psychological abuse suffered by hostages released during a November 2023 temporary ceasefire. The report — the first comprehensive account of hostages’ experiences — found that the captives, including children, were subjected to extreme conditions, including sexual assaults, prolonged periods in darkness, physical beatings, and starvation. Many were bound hand and foot and deprived of adequate food and water. Several were burned or branded with heated metal. Medical care was either withheld or administered without pain relief, resulting in excruciating suffering during procedures, including surgeries.
Hostages were denied basic hygiene, and often forced to soil themselves due to prolonged waits for toilet access.
Under the terms of the emerging ceasefire, it is expected that the first 33 hostages to be released will be humanitarian cases — women, children, elderly and sick. Palestinians from northern Gaza who fled to southern areas of the Strip will be allowed to return to their homes. Israeli forces will not withdraw from the Strip until all the hostages are freed.
Opponents of the agreement are against any deal that does not bring home all the hostages at once.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 95 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
