Freed hostage says she was abducted by armed Palestinian civilians, sold to Hamas

An Israeli hostage who was abducted during the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7 said Monday that she was captured by armed Palestinian civilians who later sold her to the Gaza-ruling terror group.

Nili Margalit’s revelation in an interview with the Le Point French magazine appeared to further highlight the extent to which participation in the shock attack in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and 253 were taken hostage extended beyond fighters in the Hamas terror group.Margalit shared her story while on a Paris stop of a tour throughout Europe aimed at raising awareness of the 133 Israelis still in captivity.

Margalit was in her home in the Gaza-border town of Kibbutz Nir Oz when thousands of Palestinian terrorists burst across the border shortly after dawn.

Like many others, she took refuge in her house’s bomb shelter before messages began flooding in from neighbors sharing that terrorists had infiltrated their town, she recalled in the interview.At around 9 a.m. terrorists breached Margalit’s home, ransacking rooms and setting the building on fire. They soon found her hiding in her safe room.

The 42-year-old was pulled outside and covered with a white sheet while surrounded by what she described as “civilians armed with Kalashnikovs.” She was forced onto a golf cart and driven to the southern border before being transferred to a car and driven to the Gazan city of Khan Younis.

There, her civilian captors “negotiated with Hamas to sell me. When they were paid, I was taken straight into a tunnel,” she said.