From Breitbart: Hamas offered starving hostages more food if they converted to Islam — and they refused, according to statements by families of some of the 20 living hostages who were returned to Israel earlier this week.
Hamas is an Islamist terrorist group whose ambitions extend beyond destroying Israel, and include converting the entire world to Islam by force. The name Hamas is an acronym, in Arabic, of the words “Islamic Resistance Movement” — a fact often overlooked by pro-Palestinian activists in the West.
Families of the hostages, returned in U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal, had described Hamas’s attempts to convert their relatives in captivity — and the heroic efforts of the starving hostages to resist.
Jewish author, Hen Mazzig, a senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, shared the following account:
“Rom was pressured to convert to Islam. They told him he would be compensated with food if he converted,” Tami, the mother of Rom Braslavski, said, explaining that her son was held in multiple locations, including places where the bodies of hostages were kept.
During his two years in captivity under Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Rom was repeatedly pressured to convert in exchange for food, but he always refused. The moment he returned home, he put on his tefilin.
Tami added that Rom was violently beaten and tortured by PIJ, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and denied basic hygiene. In the days before his release, his captors force-fed him, leaving lasting effects on his health.
They also tried to manipulate him with lies, claiming Iran had bombed Israel, that the country was nearly destroyed, buildings had collapsed, and some 3,000 soldiers were dead.
They even showed him images of Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, telling him his photo wasn’t there, that no one was talking about him and his family was too broken to protest.
Now that Rom is home, he can’t stop looking out the window. “Rom stands at the window looking at the sky. He says all he wants is the sky, sun, and air — freedom.”
“Rom was pressured to convert to Islam. They told him he would be compensated with food if he converted,”
Tami, the mother of Rom Braslavski, said her son was held in multiple locations, including places where the bodies of hostages were kept.
During his two years in captivity… pic.twitter.com/J29Bdy4N33
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 15, 2025
Breitbart also shared details about Yosef-Haim Ohana and another hostage who was forced to listen to Islamic religious messages on the radio. However, they figured out how to adjust the radio wires and managed to tune into an Israeli army radio, where Ohana heard his own father giving an interview.
He has now been reunited with his father:
Emotional moments: After being kidnapped on October 7, 2023, and surviving more than 2 years in Hamas captivity in Gaza, Yosef-Haim Ohana is finally reunited with his father in Israel.
Credit: IDF pic.twitter.com/BpgNtF8RPh
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) October 13, 2025
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