Itay Regev, a former Hamas hostage who was freed in late November, described the "horrific" conditions he was kept in and the harsh treatment he received from his captors in an interview with the BBC.
Regev, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival together with his sister and a friend on the morning of October 7, described his Hamas captors as "very, very vicious."
He described the kidnapping and how they encountered terrorists in a van who "sprayed" the fleeing vehicles with bullets "without any mercy." Both Regev and his sister were shot in the legs.
"I saw my sister Maya injured and crying. Maya also that day said goodbye to me and told me if I come out of this alive, tell our parents that she loves them. This is a day I will never forget for the rest of my life," he said.
Regev recalled the celebrations they encountered when they were brought to Gaza, which were "like a big party." They were taken into a tunnel underneath a house before he was eventually taken to a hospital to remove the bullet in his leg.
He underwent the surgery without any form of anesthesia or painkillers. His captors warned that if he was not quiet during the procedure, they would kill him, and slapped him and spat on him during the operation.
His sister had to have her foot reattached as a result of her bullet wounds, but the foot was not reattached correctly and at an odd angle. She now requires extensive rehabilitation.
"We were very, very hungry. I didn't have a shower for 54 days. My captors were very, very vicious. They didn't care. I had wounds in my legs, big holes in my legs," he said. "And you lived there in a horrific sense of fear. Every second that you live with this feeling is a terrible feeling, that you don't really know if you're going to wake up in the morning, or in a minute, if a missile is going to fall on you, if they're going to come in with a Kalashnikov and start spraying us with bullets. The conditions are very, very difficult there."
Brother and sister did not see each other throughout their captivity and were only allowed to communicate through notes. They were eventually released together as part of the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas in late November. Their friend who was kidnapped with them was not released and remains in captivity.
Regev said that he came to London to meet with MPs and advocate for the 134 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
"The hostages have been there for five months now. The answer is unequivocally, no they're [the international community] not doing enough," he said.
"I think we should do anything we possibly can to get them out of there, whatever the cost," he said, adding, "It's people's lives."