\u201cAt that point, you\u2019re already so hungry and exhausted that nothing moves you or frightens you, and I started cursing him in Arabic, so that everyone would understand. It wasn\u2019t some super special confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just spoke to him the way they deserve, like the sons of bitches they are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI shouted at him, \u2018Just because you\u2019re masked doesn\u2019t mean I can\u2019t see you, and just because your eyes are covered doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t recognize your voice, or remember what you did to me, and kul kalb biji yomo,\u201d she said. The Arabic expression refers to every \u201cdog\u201d eventually getting what it deserves.<\/p>\n
Married her lifelong friend in 2021<\/p>\n
In the interview, the now-39 year old from Kibbutz Magen spoke about her lifelong friendship and then courtship with Yagev, whom she met when the two were in elementary school in the Gaza border area.<\/p>\n
They became romantically involved in 2020, and married in 2021. They lived together in Nirim, not far from where they grew up, with five dogs and four cats.<\/p>\n
She told Ynet that, in captivity, the couple spoke about their plans to have a child together, and recalled that when she quickly stopped getting her period as a result of severe weight loss, they chose to believe instead that she\u2019d conceived before their abduction.<\/p>\n
\t Buchshtab-Kirscht recalled how, at 6:29 a.m. on October 7, the moment the attack began, she and her husband were woken up by rocket sirens at the start of the Hamas invasion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last thing he managed to do before [the terrorists] finally broke in was to look me in the eyes and say: \u2018I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 and I immediately went into a speech: \u2018Don\u2019t you dare apologize, this isn\u2019t your fault, everything is okay, the important thing is to stay together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt 8:40, they broke into the house, and they tried to separate us. Our shirts were torn, but we wouldn\u2019t let go of each other, and they couldn\u2019t manage to lift us up, so they dragged us on the sidewalk, and punched us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey put us in a golf cart, where I was sitting on the dead body of a terrorist, and we drove past the kibbutz, and they told us, \u2018Start walking.\u2019 We walked a long time in the fields, in pajamas, barefoot.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, a white Toyota pulled up, and they were pushed inside it, and given what she called \u201ca tour of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n \t \u201cI covered Yagev\u2019s eyes, so he wouldn\u2019t see the bloodbath outside,\u201d she said. \u201cAmong other things, I saw a girl on a motorcycle, tied up by the upper part of her naked body, as the lower part of it was being dragged on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple was taken to a house in southern Gaza\u2019s Khan Younis, the home of a Hamas operative named Osama, who she said was about 60 years old. He had two sons, one in middle school and one in high school, who brought her two kittens, and also gave her some acetaminophen for her injuries, she said. At one point, two other Hamas operatives came and pulled out one of her broken teeth.<\/p>\n \u201cSinwar spoke with me in English, said \u2018Let\u2019s talk’\u201d<\/p>\n At one point, Buchshtab-Kirscht recalled, an \u201cimportant person\u201d from Hamas was taken to the area where she was being held with five other hostages. She later learned it had been terror chief Yahya Sinwar.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, I just knew it was a very senior person, who came with a notebook and wanted me to write down the details of the hostages in Hebrew block letters [rather than script], because that\u2019s what he knew how to read, and also in English.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said we\u2019d all be recorded on video, saying our name, our age, where we\u2019re from, and our ID numbers. Sinwar spoke with me in English, and he said I had a head on my shoulders, and \u2018Let\u2019s talk,\u2019\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n \t \u201cHe wanted to know what our conditions were like, how [our captors] were interacting with us, and I said to him: \u2018Great that you asked, I have a lot to tell you \u2013 but first, I want to ask something of you. Promise me that after I\u2019m done, you will take Yagev and me down to the tunnels and put us with other hostages, because these [captors] treat us very cruelly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he took my hand and he really stood by it. Afterward, he took us down to the tunnels after we got a cup of hot tea, and Yagev got an inhaler,\u201d she said, adding that she concealed the inhaler in her bra, which she also used to keep drawings given to her by child hostages.<\/p>\n In the tunnels, however, she said she and her husband were still treated poorly. They were kept in a cage and separated from other hostages.<\/p>\n Stabbed captors to protect her husband<\/p>\n Buchshtab-Kirscht told Channel 12 in a separate interview aired Monday evening that she stabbed her captors on multiple occasions, both during her abduction and in captivity.<\/p>\n She said she felt compelled to protect Yagev by any means necessary \u201ceven it meant attacking a terrorist\u201d or taking beatings in his place.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you need to stab a terrorist, you stab a terrorist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She recalled stabbing the first terrorist who entered her home on October 7 with a kitchen knife.<\/p>\n On another occasion, she said she stabbed one of her captors with a fork she had secretly hidden after he entered the room where she and her husband were being held, intending to beat Yagev.<\/p>\n After she stabbed him, the terrorist asked her in English, \u201cYou crazy?\u201d Buchshtab-Kirscht replied in Arabic: \u201cNo, I\u2019m crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that she refused to read from a script Hamas operatives handed her while filming a hostage propaganda video alongside fellow hostages Danielle Aloni and Lena Trufanov. She said the refusal was met with a brutal beating that left her with broken teeth.<\/p>\n She also opened up about the sexual assault she experienced, which she said she didn\u2019t even realize had taken place until she was asked upon her return whether she had been assaulted.<\/p>\n \u201cI underwent a very intrusive search,\u201d she said. \u201cOnly afterward at some point, I realized that, looking at it from the outside, I experienced some sort of sexual crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Begging captors not to separate her from husband<\/p>\n When hostage releases began in late November, during a weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the couple\u2019s captors declared that Rimon would be released without Yagev.<\/p>\n Buchshtab-Kirscht told Ynet that she begged her captors to release a different hostage instead, pleading: \u2018I don\u2019t ask for much, not for medicine, not for toilet paper, I\u2019m ready to stay here, with all the fleas, with my broken tooth and my broken face.\u2019 But they insisted it had to be me.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/927dc1abdfa47b65d5f9b93f1d036a8a-e1700668940702-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tRimon Buchshtab-Kirscht and Yagev Buchshtab were taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nirim. Rimon was released during a weeklong deal on November 28 2023; Yagev\u2019s death in captivity in Gaza was announced by the IDF on July 22, 2024. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/vlcsnap-2025-06-12-12h44m10s264-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tFile: Hamas terrorists are seen near the Gama Junction in southern Israel, close to Re\u2019im and Kissufim, amid the October 7, 2023, onslaught. (South First Responders)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP24219658683535-e1728455018511-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tHead of Hamas in Gaza Yahya Sinwar chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo\/Adel Hana, File)<\/p>\n
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