Renana Eitan, the head of psychiatry at the Ichilov medical centre in Tel Aviv, said the hostages had suffered the worst abuse and trauma she had witnessed in her career.
Among the 14 freed hostages treated at her centre, she said, were child hostages who had been drugged by their captors, including with ketamine, who were suffering from withdrawal. There were also those who had been subjected to, or witnessed, sexual abuse.
"I thought that I'd treated the most severe cases there were, but with these patients that came from captivity we couldn't believe that degree of cruelty. Most of the hostages who came back went through very severe physical and mental abuse... We know that they have a long way ahead of them," Eitan said.
Of the 14 hostages treated by Eitan's team, nine are under 18 years and two under 10. Most need long-term treatment for trauma. Some have gone to other facilities. Eitan said six were still receiving "very intensive psychiatric and psychological care" at the Ichilov centre.
Eitan said news footage of joyful reunions as 120 hostages were released in the last week of November masked a darker underlying reality.
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