[Graphic] She woke up half-dressed, surrounded by 7 terrorists: Ilana Gritzewsky opens up about being a hostage 

Ilana Gritzewsky, who was kidnapped along with her partner Matan Zangauker and released in the first deal, shared in an interview with The New York Times about the sexual assaults she experienced during her captivity and abduction. She recounted the abuse she suffered already on the way to Gaza, on the terrorists’ motorcycle, and her desperate pleas to the terrorists not to harm her sexually.

Gritzewsky said that during the abduction, she was taken on a motorcycle between two terrorists, who pressed her leg against the motorcycle’s exhaust pipe, leaving her with painful burns. During the ride, the terrorist sitting behind her slipped his hand under her shirt and touched her. According to her testimony, she fainted from the pain and terror before they crossed the border into the Gaza Strip.

When she arrived in Gaza, she recounted waking up lying on the cold, hard ground, her shirt lifted above her chest and her pants pulled down to her knees, with seven terrorists surrounding her. She told them she was on her period, and according to her, this is what saved her from a more severe assault. "They beat me and lifted me up," she said in the interview. "Their fists landed on my arms and back, and I could barely stand."

"I felt they were disappointed," she continued. "I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful to be on my period. It was the only thing that stopped them." During the more than 50 days she was held captive in Gaza, she was moved from place to place, mostly in apartments above ground. She said she was held in private homes with peeling walls and sparse furniture, a hospital which stank of disinfectant, and also in a damp, suffocating tunnel just before her release. She told her captors she suffered from a chronic digestive illness that left her weak and in constant pain, but they provided her with no medication or medical care, dismissing her pleas with cold indifference.

Gritzewsky recounted being interrogated in an attempt to extract information about her military service. She said one of the terrorists hugged her tightly, and, while pointing a gun to her head, told her that even if there were a deal, she wouldn’t be released "because he wanted to marry her and have children with her." She said one of the captors told her he was a math teacher and another claimed to be a lawyer. She also said they stole her bracelet and earrings.

Ilana tried to tell her captors about Matan, asking them about a hostage with long hair. One of them confirmed to her that there was a hostage like that and even knew to mention that he was from Ofakim, where Matan’s family lives. Despite this, she never got to meet him during her captivity. She said the uncertainty gnawed at her, leaving her to wonder if he was still alive, just out of reach in the shadows of Gaza.

Ilana has met with government officials, sharing her story and joining other families in organizing protests outside important institutions. Every day, she said, she fights the haunting memories of her captivity to keep hope alive for Matan, determined to see him freed from the nightmare they once shared.

Channel 12 contributed to this article.