Hamas hostages recall chains, torture and tunnel escape as world marks three years since October 7 massacre

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.

Three years after the Nova festival massacre left 1,200 dead and 251 dragged into Gaza, survivors are breaking their silence on what Hamas did to them underground. Avinatan Or, 33 — whose then-girlfriend Noa Argamani was photographed screaming on the back of a motorcycle — reveals he secretly dug his own escape tunnel beneath Gaza, only to be caught and brutally tortured. His memoir, 'Through the Earth,' is already a number one bestseller in Israel.

Eliya Cohen told a UN commemoration he was chained by the leg with iron chains, denied sleep, food, water and use of a restroom for 505 days.

May Hayat, 32, survived by hiding in a pit and escaping an ambulance moments before it was blown up, but was still captured — one of 44 taken hostage from the Nova festival alone.