Tel Aviv, Israel - An 85-year-old Israeli freed after more than two weeks of captivity by Hamas militants opened up on her harrowing experience of being abducted to Gaza.

Yocheved Lifshitz recounted how the militants "went on a rampage in our kibbutz, kidnapped me, lay me over a motorcycle... and sped off with me through the plowed fields".

They "beat me on the way – they didn't break my ribs but hurt me very much," said the elderly woman, seated in a wheelchair and surrounded by media at a Tel Aviv hospital.

Lifshitz was freed along with Nurit Coope (79) by Hamas, which cited "compelling humanitarian" reasons, after mediation by Qatar and Egypt, days after a US mother and her teenage daughter were also freed.

Israel-Gaza War Israel accused of latest massacre in Gaza after wiping out building where dozens were sheltering

During her weeks of captivity, Lifshitz said, "they treated us well," describing her captors as courteous and saying a doctor visited every two to three days.

Lifshitz, whose husband remains in Hamas captivity, said the militants appeared to have "prepared for a long time" to take large numbers of hostages.

"They had everything that men and women needed, including shampoo," she told journalists. "We ate the same food they did – pitas with cream cheese, melted cheese, cucumbers."

A video released by Hamas showed Lifshitz shaking one of her captors' hands and bidding him "Shalom!" upon her release.

The Hamas surprise attack that killed more than 1,400 people left Israel reeling and enraged, leading to over two weeks of near-continuous bombardment on Gaza, where the death toll has passed 5,000.

Thousands of buildings have been levelled in the densely populated enclave, with entire city blocks reduced to rubble and many victims still feared buried beneath.

Gaza City resident Ayman Abu Shamalah was among the tens of thousands who followed an Israeli order to flee the north of the enclave, but this did not spare his family.

Daily Horoscope Today's horoscope: Free daily horoscope for Wednesday, December 11, 2024

An Israeli air strike on Rafah in southern Gaza killed his pregnant wife as well as their three-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter, he told AFP tearfully.

"They put my son's shattered body in a blue bag," Shamalah said. More than 2,000 children have been killed since the war began, according to Palestinian authorities.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Monday urged an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" for Gaza where about half of the population of 2.4 million has been driven from their homes.

Israel has cut off water, food, fuel and energy supplies to Gaza, and only a trickle of aid has been allowed in from Egypt in recent days under a US-brokered deal.

The UN World Health Organization warned that more than one third of Gaza's hospitals were "not functioning" and limited fuel supplies were impacting ambulances in the territory, where thousands have been wounded.