Freed Israeli hostage recounts ordeal in Gaza, where she says she was held in a hospital and civilian homes
CBSN
Former Israeli hostage Ada Sagi, 75, who was kidnapped by the Hamas-allied group Islamic Jihad on Oct. 7 last year, said she was held in both civilian homes and a hospital in and around the city of Khan Younis in Gaza before she was released as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners in November 2023.
In an interview aired Wednesday, Sagi told CBS News partner network BBC News that she was taken by two kidnappers on a motorcycle from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz into Gaza on Oct. 7. She said she was forced to leave her shoes behind, and her foot was badly burned by the exhaust pipe of the bike. She said she was put between her two captors on the motorcycle, one of whom had a Kalashnikov.
When they got into Gaza, she said she was put into a car and told by her kidnappers that they were from Islamic Jihad, which, like Hamas, has long been designated as a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S. She said she was informed that her captors wanted to keep her to use in a potential prisoner swap. Sagi and another female hostage were brought to a family home where children lived, where they were given food and a doctor was brought to look at her burn, she said.
Seoul, South Korea — In a symbolic display of anger, North Korea blew up the northern parts of inter-Korean roads no longer in use on Tuesday, South Korea said, after the rivals exchanged threats of destruction amid rising animosities over North Korea's claim that South Korea flew drones over its capital.
Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an Armenian church dating back almost 2,000 years, making it the oldest structure of its kind in the country and one of the oldest in the world. Germany's University of Münster, which partnered with a team at the Armenian academy of Sciences on the archaeological dig, announced the discovery Friday and called it "a sensational testimony to early Christianity in Armenia."
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea has accused rival South Korea of flying drones to its capital to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that South Korean drones were detected in the night skies of Pyongyang on Oct. 3 and Wednesday and Thursday this week.