Moran Stella Yanai, who was released in the November 2023 prisoner swap, spoke with Channel 12 News about her experiences as a hostage in Gaza. During her time in captivity , the Hamas terrorists holding her demanded that her father pay a ransom - or they would murder his daughter. "The moment I returned, after the hugs and kisses, I think that this was the third question that I asked. I turned to my father and I said to him, 'Dad, was money offered for me?' And he answered, 'Yes,'" she told Channel 12 . "It was during the day, some time in the afternoon, and I and two other female hostages were sitting in a room. I was very tense due to all the noise coming from the next room, and that day, I started hearing, 'Abuha, abuha,' many many times. I tried to pay attention a bit more and tried to understand what was being discussed. 'Abuha abuha.' Her father, her father. One of the captors came to me and started asking me questions about my father." She continued, "He asked, 'Does your father love you?' and I answered him, 'Of course, more than anything.' He told me, 'And what would he give for you?' I asked him what he meant, and he continued, 'Machari, machari (money). How much money would he give for you?'" "I told him, 'He would give you everything." Moran added that the terrorist continued to speak to her about the matter for the rest of the day. "They asked how much he earns, what he does, where he is, where we live, what car we have. Suddenly I started to connect the dots - what I had heard a moment before, 'Abuha, abuha,' I understood very quickly that they may actually be turning to our parents and asking money of them. I clarified to him, that moment, that my father would give everything for me. Anything he possibly could - he would give for me." Related articles: Family of hostage Matan Angrest to reveal footage from kidnapping "Eid Mubarak". “Let us love, Let us be loved” Hamas captivity survivors take off for US Israel passes counter-proposal for ceasefire to mediators When Moran was released, after 54 days of captivity, she began to understand: At the same time that her captors spoke about her father and clarified the family's financial abilities, her father received phone calls and messages in Hebrew, and especially in terrible English, from an anonymous phone number from the area of Khan Yunis." "He was shocked the moment he heard such a thing," Moran described. "He received a photo of his daughter (not one that was taken in captivity) and they told him that if he did not pay money within an hour, they would begin to kill us one by one.... My parents went through trauma no less than I did." She added that her father was willing to pay any sum in the world, but at some point, the person speaking to him hung up, and no money was transferred. "This is exactly part of the mind games that they play with us," she stressed. "They don't play only with us - they also play with our families. It doesn't end with 'we murdered, we took, and we walked off.' They continue to torture and continue to harass the families." At one point, Moran's captors demanded that she convert to Islam. "He would come and read to me from the Quran sometimes, he asked me what I think in my head, and I had to respond, 'Praise be G-d, praise be G-d.' And he would tell us, 'If you convert to Islam, we will release you home faster.'" This happened on a near-daily basis, she added. "He told me, 'It's better for you to be a Muslim woman,' and then he sent one of his soldiers to take a head covering, come back to me, and put it and show me how to be a Muslim woman. As a woman, my greatest fear was that I would be sold. That someone would marry me off by force and I would have to be a Muslim."
