The condition of the abductees is deteriorating: assessment – many of them suffer from serious life-threatening illnesses

The medical condition of the abductees is deteriorating and many of them will not survive much longer, according to experts at an emergency hearing held yesterday at the President’s residence. According to the testimonies of the abductees and follow-up tests conducted on them, the difficult nutritional situation, the infections, the poor hygiene, the lack of oxygen supply and ventilation, the high stress and the poor mental state, all increase the risk of morbidity and mortality. The condition of the members of their families who are waiting for the return of their loved ones is also deteriorating and they are experiencing mental stress, they are not eating and sleeping and are also at a high risk of suicide.

Captivity survivor Yochaved Lifshitz told about her difficult situation after 17 days in captivity: “I came back sick and that was actually the reason they decided to release me, because they were afraid that I would infect everyone. While I was in captivity I lost five kilos and my blood pressure dropped to the floor. If I returned after 50 days I would return to the closet, what saved me was my contagious disease and that the prisoners did not want me to be name”.

Lifshitz appealed to the president for his assistance: “Now more than ever, a sharp and clear, public statement is needed, saying: ‘All other things will stand aside, the return of the abductees is the main thing, this is the most important task now. We must use every possible means to ensure that no abductee is given up There. They can’t survive there any more.”

Prof. Hagai Levin, head of the family headquarters’ health system, spoke about the multidimensional damage: “The serious situation is not only for the abductees, the damage is multidimensional. The victims are the abductee himself, the family members, the immediate community and the entire Israeli public. I look On the face of the abductees, their health condition is deteriorating and they may not survive the coming winter, they do not have the reserves of the previous winter, they are all fragile and humanitarian cases.”

Prof. Levin also described the severe hardships of the abductees’ families: according to him, they rarely sleep, do not eat, are under enormous mental and physical stress that significantly endangers their health and lives.

Dr. Einat Yahana, an expert rehabilitation psychologist from the family headquarters’ health system, added that the family members of the abductees become “walking ghosts” and according to her their mental state puts them at high risk of suicide: “The loss leaves the families in an emotional limbo, they are trapped between hope and the return of the abductee for fear of his life. The families experience flashbacks, traumatic stress and immense anxiety. The lives of the families of the abductees are at a standstill, they themselves are absent from their previous identity before the seventh of October. They are absent from family function and experience difficulties in the dynamics that lead to dissolution.”