Complete darkness, little food. As Hamas releases hostages, what they say captivity was like

Adina Moshe, one of the hostages released by Hamas Friday, emerged from weeks of darkness to a welcome sight.

Her eyes struggled to adjust to the sunlight. But once she saw the Red Cross, she realized “these horrifying seven weeks are over,” her nephew, Eyal Nouri, told The Associated Press after her release.

As the hostages freed in recent days under a cease-fire deal adjust to freedom, their families have shared some details about what they experienced.

“She was in complete darkness,” Nouri said. “And during her captivity, she was disconnected … from all the outside world.”

An estimated 240 people were taken hostage by militants and dragged into Gaza during the Oct. 7 raid into Israel. More than 1,200 people were killed in the attack, according to Israeli authorities.

As of Sunday, dozens of hostages had been released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

A fourth exchange was expected Monday.

Those released Friday included three relatives of Merav Raviv, who said her cousin and aunt each had lost about 15 pounds during their captivity. They were fed irregularly, mostly rice and bread, according to Raviv.

They slept on pushed-together plastic chairs. Accessing a bathroom could take hours.

Yaffa Adar, an 85-year-old Israeli who also lost weight while a hostage, counted each day she was held.

“She came back and she said, `I know that I’ve been there for 50 days,’” Adva Adar, her granddaughter, told the AP.

John Kirby, the White House spokesman on national security, said the U.S. does not have much information about the conditions hostages had endured. The only American freed so far is 4-year-old Avigail Edan, whose parents were killed in the attack Oct. 7.

"It’s a safe assumption, they were taken against their will in violent circumstances, that this had to be a harrowing experience for them," Kirby said.

Israel and Hamas have both said captives were being held in tunnels underneath Gaza.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was released last month before the cease-fire, said she and other captors slept on mattresses on the floors of the tunnels.

“I went through hell," Lifshitz told reporters at a hospital in Tel Aviv the day after her release.

Lifshitz said she was beaten while her Hamas captors abducted her on the back of a motorcycle. She said she was then taken through a "spider web" of subterranean tunnels − passages where Hamas hides its fighters and weapons.

She said that she was kept in a large hall and that once there, her captors provided food and medicine.

Israel and Hamas agreed to extend a pause in fighting in Gaza by two additional days, the foreign ministry of Qatar said Monday, which would allow for the release of about 20 more hostages.

Kirby said "eight or nine" Americans remain hostages in Gaza but added that "we don't necessarily have firm solid information on each and every one."

"We certainly hope so," Kirby said of the possibility more Americans will be among the next group of hostages released. "We don't really know until we get into the end game who's going to be on that list."

Alma Abraham, an 84-year-old hostage released Sunday, needed immediate hospitalization for a life-threatening condition. She had not been treated properly for a pre-existing condition, according to the hospital’s director.

Most of those freed, however, appeared to be in good physical condition.

But the psychological toll may be steep.

Teenager Hila Rotem-Shoshani, who was released Sunday − a day before her 13th birthday − had to be reminded she could talk freely again.

“They always told them to whisper and stay quiet,” her uncle, Yair Rotem, told AP, “so I keep telling her now she can raise her voice.”

Contributing: The Associated Press and Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY.