Freed hostage had escaped Hamas kidnappers but was recaptured days later, family says

Aunt of Roni Krivoi says building he was being held in collapsed in an airstrike allowing him to run, but he could not find his way to the border. He was released on Sunday as part of a truce deal

Roni Kriboi, 25, is said to have escaped his Hamas captors for four days during his captivity (REUTERS)

An Israeli hostage released during the truce in Gaza managed to esacape his Hamas kidnappers for a few days before being recaptured, his family have said.

Roni Krivoi, 25, who is also a Russian citizen, spent four days alone in Gaza according to his aunt, after escaping the building where he was held after it was bombed in an airstrike. Unable to find his way to the border he Hamas eventually retook him.

Mr Krivoi was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival on 7 October. Speaking a day after his release to an Israeli broadcaster, Yelena Magid said: “He was kidnapped by terrorists and they held inside him some kind of building... “It’s my understanding that from the bombings, the building collapsed and he managed to get out and escape. It’s a movie, this whole thing.”

Ms Magid, who said she had spoken to her nephew for 30 minutes after his release, added: “For a few days, he was hiding [in Gaza] alone.

“He tried getting to the border. He did not have the capacity to understand where he was and where he needed to go, so he could not navigate the open field. He was alone.”

Mr Krivoi suffered head wounds during the collapse of the building in which he was being kept, his aunt said.

“He has some other injuries; he is OK. He is being checked," she added.

“I asked him today: ‘How are you feeling? Do you have nightmares?’ He answered: ‘Yes, I have nightmares from the party and captivity, but that is good, it means I am handling it well.’”

The dual-national sound engineer was then returned to his family on Sunday. The military wing of Hamas, known as the al-Qassam Brigades, said yesterday that they had “handed over a detainee of Russian citizenship … based on the intervention of the Russian President Vladimir Putin”.

Russian state news agency Tass reported that Hamas answered the request because of Moscow’s “support of the Palestinian cause”.

Mr Krivoi was identified as a foreign national during his release, which caused anger among his family.

“It doesn’t matter Putin or no Putin,” Ms Magid said. “Each one that has been [taken] hostage, if there’s an opportunity to save him, it doesn’t matter who does it, we have to get them all out,”

“The separation of the idea that there were 13 hostages freed and one more Russian is not right,” she added.

“I genuinely couldn’t fathom the separation of his rescue yesterday. The kid was born here and grew up here all his life, he barely speaks Russian.”