EVANSVILLE, In. (WEHT)- Mark Vyvoda and his wife, Tory Schendel-Vyvoda, are niece and nephew to one of the women released from captivity yesterday.
Yocheved Lifshit, or “Yoshki”, as her family call’s her, was taken from her home along with her husband 3 weeks ago by Hamas militants. All eyes have been on the war and the world has wanted to know: what is happening to the hostages?
Now that “Yoshki” has spoken out, we get some of those questions answered. She tells the Associated Press, her captors hustled her onto a motorcycle, removed her watch and jewelry and beat her with sticks, bruising her ribs and making it difficult to breathe. Once in Gaza, she describes walking several kilometers to a network of tunnels where she was kept. She says that she was taken good care of by the guards and they were given medication and one meal each day. “Yoshki’s” daughter made the trip from London, to reunite with her mother.
She tells the press, “My mom said she was treated well. And that the people were kind to her. We do not know what is the story of the 175 or so other prisoners. We cannot deduct from it that they too were in a good condition.”.
For their family here in Evansville, it’s still a time of processing.
Mark Vyvoda explains, “This is kind of an emotional day. A day where a lot of people are still kind of processing. Where they are being released, and there is still a lot of hope for those that are still being held”. Tory Scendel-Vyvoda adds, “And the helpful thing, too, is we will be heading to the UK in a couple weeks and hopefully they will all be there and it will be a time to have those conversations and at let them speak”.
They still await news on the wellbeing of their uncle.
