Former hostage Bar Kuperstein, who was released from captivity on October 13 as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, said his Hamas captors beat him so severely he couldn’t walk for a month as an “eye for an eye” reaction to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s treatment of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails.
In a snippet aired Sunday of a full interview that will be broadcast by the Kan public broadcaster on Tuesday, Kuperstein said he resented how the ultranationalist Ben Gvir touted the Palestinian prisoners’ worsened living conditions, as the minister’s bragging had made life harder for the hostages.
“How did you let them abuse us? You’re a government minister… you’re supposed to care for us. Why aren’t you caring for us?” asked Kuperstein, who was abducted from the Nova music festival during the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Ben Gvir, who has consistently opposed any ceasefire and hostage release deals with Hamas, released a video statement in response to Kuperstein’s remarks in which he accused the Israeli press of siding with Hamas.
“I embrace Bar Kuperstein and all the returning hostages, but the Israeli media is adopting Hamas’s narrative,” said the minister, whose comments on Palestinian prisoners have, according to testimonies from other freed hostages upon their return, led to other cases of the captives being beaten.
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“Hamas did not need an excuse on October 7 to come in, murder, rape, abuse, burn babies,” said Ben Gvir. “All these things happened long before the changes in the jails.”
Ben Gvir said he had wanted to make the changes to the treatment of Palestinian prisoners prior to October 7, but that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented him from doing so.
אני מחבק חיבוק את בר קופרשטיין ואת כל החטופים שחזרו הביתה. אבל התקשורת הישראלית מאמצת את הנרטיב של החמאס.
החמאס לא היה צריך תירוץ כדי שב־7.10 הם ייכנסו, יירצחו, יאנסו, יתעללו, יישרפו תינוקות. כל הדברים האלה התרחשו עוד הרבה לפני השינויים בבתי הכלא – שינויים שנתניהו באותה תקופה לא… pic.twitter.com/jyZoTDNhw0
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) October 26, 2025
Furthermore, he claimed that the Shin Bet security agency has since said that his decision to publicize the harsh treatment of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons resulted in “a decrease in terror attacks and Hamas being deterred.”
Contrary to his claim, Shin Bet statistics have shown that Ben Gvir’s time in office has been marred by a significant rise in terror attacks.
‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’
Kuperstein, in the snippet released by Kan, said his captors would intentionally withhold food from him for days at a time, despite having enough food to keep themselves satiated.
“We didn’t see them eating. They were in their own room. But you could see it on their bodyweight — you get smaller and they’re getting bigger,” he said. “There was a guy, who we called Shchorzik — his job, and he also said this, ‘I’m here to see you’re not treated too well.”
Around the 270th day of his two-year captivity, Kuperstein, “they came to us and just… rained blows on us. They stood us against the wall and really beat us up.”
Released hostage Bar Kuperstein after he was handed over to the IDF after over two years of captivity in the Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025 (Israel Defense Forces)
“They said, it’s because of Ben Gvir — you’ll get what he does to our prisoners, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’,” he said. “They repeated that a bunch more times, came and beat us up.”
“About a week later, I remember they took me to their room — eyes blindfolded, of course — and the moment I came in I got two blows like this, right to the face, cymbals, really,” he said, miming a pair of cymbals being crashed together. “I fell to the floor from the force.”
בלעדי: ליווינו את בר קופרשטיין לאחר חזרתו משבי של שנתיים בעזה. לראשונה מול המצלמות הוא מספק עדות שכמותה לא שמעתם – על העינויים בשבי, על מה שקרה במנהרות ועל מה שקרה לו אחרי שהשר בן גביר החליט לצאת לתקשורת בהצהרה על הרעת תנאי האסירים הפלסטינים. הסרט המלא בשלישי ב״זמן אמת״ בכאן 11 pic.twitter.com/J0sDviGe3b
— בר שם-אור Bar Shem-Ur (@Bar_ShemUr) October 26, 2025
“They pulled me by the legs the entire length of the room, and they’re stepping [on me] and really humiliating [me] as much as they could,” said Kuperstein.
Kuperstein said his captors then tied him by his legs to a pole, at which point one of them addressed him in Hebrew, saying: “Until now we haven’t done anything. Now you’ll feel on your flesh what our prisoners feel [in Israel].”
“When [my] knees were being tied I said… ‘What are they going to do? Chop off my legs?… Could this be the end?’ My life started flashing before my eyes,” said Kuperstein. Then, he said, his captors beat his legs and feet.
“I remember I even put my right leg on my left so that they would only hit one leg, so that I’d at least have one leg left,” said Kuperstein. “They broke several bones in my feet, and I couldn’t walk on them for a month or something,” he says.
Asked if he was angry at Ben Gvir, Kuperstein said he was angry that the harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel was done so publicly.
Former hostage Bar Kuperstein, draped in Israeli flag, reunites with his father Tal, second from left, in wheelchair, following his release from captivity on October 13, 2025. (GPO)
“I was angry about the fact that it went out to the press. How things like that — even if they happen, I don’t know if it’s screw-ups or not — why it goes out to the press when you know we’re in their hands,” Kuperstein said.
Kuperstein was among the last 20 living hostages who were released on October 13 as part of the US-brokered ceasefire. The remains of 13 slain hostages, including a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war, are still in Gaza.
Ben Gvir, who oversees the Israel Prison Service in his capacity as national security minister, has repeatedly railed against what he describes as luxury items provided to Palestinian security prisoners. Early in his tenure, he moved to ban fresh pita from being served behind bars and limited shower times for inmates. In the wake of the October 7 assault, he ordered new restrictions, including overcrowding and the removal of beds.
Last month, in what was seen as a clear rebuke of Ben Gvir, the High Court of Justice found in a two-to-one vote that the state has failed to fulfill its legal obligations to adequately feed Palestinian security prisoners, and ordered it to take steps to provide such prisoners with enough food “to enable a basic existence.”