Freed Israeli hostages held by Hamas were terrified IDF airstrikes would kill them

• Freed Israeli hostages lashed out at PM Benjamin Netanyahu during a tense meeting Tuesday.
• Some said they were afraid they'd be killed by Israeli airstrikes while in captivity.

Freed Israeli hostages erupted in anger during a tense meeting on Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that they were terrified they would be killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza instead of their Hamas captors.

A woman who was taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza during the Palestinian militant group's October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel and was among the more than 100 hostages recently freed under a cease-fire deal said that "every day in captivity was extremely challenging," Israeli news site Ynet reported, citing audio recordings of the meeting.

"We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you," the woman from the southern Israeli village of Nir Oz near the Gaza border said during the meeting, according to Ynet.

Another former hostage, who was freed along with her children but whose husband is still being held by Hamas, told Netanyahu and other members of Israel's war cabinet that they "felt as though no one was doing anything for us" during their captivity, the news site reported.

"The reality is that I was in a hideout that was bombed, and we became wounded refugees. This doesn't even include the helicopter that fired at us on our way to Gaza," she said.

The woman condemned Israel's government over claims that it has "intelligence" on Hamas' activity yet Israel Defense Forces relentlessly bombed Gaza.

"You claim there is intelligence, but the reality is that we were being bombed," the woman said, Ynet reported. "My husband was separated from us three days before we returned to Israel and was taken to the tunnels."

She continued, "And you're talking about flooding the tunnels with seawater? You are bombing tunnel routes exactly where they are located. My daughters ask me where their father is, and I have to tell them that the bad guys still don't want to release him."

In recordings of the heated meeting in the Israeli city of Herzliya attendees, which also included family members of captives, could be heard shouting at Netanyahu, calling for the Israeli prime minister to resign, The Times of Israel reported.