Overview
- Bar Kuperstein, abducted at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was freed on October 13, 2025 after more than two years in Gaza.
- In televised remarks on Kan 11, he described severe abuse, including broken toes that left him unable to walk for weeks, food deprivation, and interrogation at gunpoint to identify former IDF soldiers.
- Kuperstein said guards told him the beatings were retaliation for Itamar Ben-Gvir’s statements, and he criticized the decision to publicize such policy changes while hostages were still held.
- Ben-Gvir responded in a video by embracing the freed hostage, accusing Israeli media of adopting Hamas’s narrative, and asserting his measures deterred terror attacks.
- Coverage notes that official data shows violence increased during Ben-Gvir’s tenure, underscoring a dispute over whether the policies reduced attacks.