Rut Hodaya Perez is in no shape to be held as a hostage in the Gaza Strip.
A 17-year-old Israeli girl who has myotonic dystrophy, Rut cannot walk and uses a wheelchair. But that didn’t stop Hamas gunmen from snatching her on Oct. 7 from a trance music festival near the Gaza border during their spree of kidnapping and slaughter.
Rut is now among the large and varied group of captives that Hamas is believed to have dragged back to its underground labyrinth of tunnels in Gaza.
“She is not built to live in a place like that,” said her sister, Yamit.
It has been two weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, massacring more than 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200. While fears are growing for the safety of all of the hostages, held in conditions that would test even the strongest, the worries are especially intense for the most physically vulnerable like Rut.
On Friday morning, Israeli military officials said that “most” of the hostages were alive, and by Friday night, all those with loved ones held in Gaza received an added injection of hope when Israel and Hamas announced that two hostages, a mother and daughter who are dual American-Israeli citizens, had been freed.
American officials said that representatives from Qatar, an American ally that maintains good relations with Hamas, had helped persuade the group, which controls Gaza, to free Judith Raanan, 59, and Natalie Raanan, 17. It was not…
