New details about the captivity of the female IDF soldiers, especially, Daniella Gilboa, were revealed on Sunday by Etty Schwartz, Daniella’s great aunt. Speaking with Kan News, she said “She (Daniella’s mother) can’t say much and I can’t say much either. She also didn’t tell me a lot. She said that at times they only ate one or two pitas a day, until their stomachs swelled.” “Sometimes there was food and they would cook and prepare food,” she added. According to other reports, some of the female soldiers were forced to cook food for their captors but forbidden from tasting any of it. At least one female soldier was held alone in a dark tunnel for an extended period of time with almost no food. Schwartz said that one positive fact was that most of them were held together in one place. “Thankfully they were together, they encouraged each other. They learned Arabic and speak fluent Arabic now. They probably spoke with their captors and there were also the captors’ children.” Schwartz also reported that Daniella mentioned that while in Gaza, she and her friends slept on mattresses and were dressed in Arab clothing. “She didn’t want to divulge too many details,” she added. Schwartz added that Daniella has a bullet in her leg that has not yet been removed. “You can see it in the abduction video when she jumped on one leg.” Liri, Na’ama, Karina, and Daniella are expected to remain in Beilinson Hospital, in a department that resembles more of a hotel than a hospital, for at least the next four days. Channel 12 reported that the medical team treating the released hostages, as well as the family members, are well aware that their initial euphoria upon returning to Israel does not reflect the full picture. The families recounted that one of the female soldiers, who had spent long months alone in a narrow tunnel, asked other captives she encountered afterward, “Tell me, are we alive?” Family members are preparing themselves for the memories to resurface over time and for difficulties to arise. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)