“We Became Rats Underground”: Israeli Hostage Segev Kalfon Recounts Horror of Hamas Captivity

In a chilling testimony, Segev Kalfon, one of the Israeli hostages released from Hamas captivity, revealed the torment he endured in Gaza following his abduction on October 7. "We dug tunnels. They forced us to work. When you go down into the tunnel, you become a rat."

Kobi, the father of the released hostage Segev Kalfon, revealed (Wednesday) in an interview on Kan Reshet Bet about the hell his son went through in captivity.

Kobi talked about particularly difficult moments that Segev experienced with the hostages Maxim Herkin and Yosef Chaim Ohana: "They went through a very difficult stage of IDF bombings, it's a miracle, it missed them by a few meters. They decided to separate from each other, they hugged, said to each other I love you."

He added: "There was a moment when he was speaking about it and I couldn't continue to hear it, I left the room. In all this joy there is also internal anger that your son went through what he had to go through. They understood that death touched them, it touched this group."

Last night, Segev told Walla reporters about the horrors he went through in Gaza.

"When we arrived in Gaza, they threw us into a building, I think it was a mosque. I remember the sounds, the echo. Someone pressed a knife to my neck, and asked what my name is. I said 'Segev'. He pressed harder. [He] Asked again, 'What's your name?'. Again I said, 'Segev'.

Every time they asked what my name is and I answered, I got beaten ... I heard the sound of a Japanese knife opening, they cut my clothes, broke my piercing. And again beating. And I only saw a white screen. Someone pressed my head hard to the floor and said to me, 'Now you're going to sleep'. I didn't understand if that means I'm about to die or the opposite.

After an hour and a half or two hours they asked me again, 'What's your name?', and I understand from their talks among themselves that they caught the name 'Steve'. I knew if I correct them I'll get beaten again. So I didn't correct them. And then I understood, actually, that I'm probably a prisoner."

He also described how Hamas beat him the day of the kidnapping: "They hit me with the butt of the weapon, hit in the knees, in the stomach, in the head, from all sides of me. After a few minutes you don't feel it anymore, you just don't feel anything. Just quiet, a minute before life ends."