Released hostage Roni Krivoi escaped captors, hid for 4 days in Gaza before being recaptured

A Russian-Israeli hostage who was kidnapped by Hamas during its surprise attack on the Nova Music Festival was able to escape his captors and hide for four days before Gazans turned him back over to the terrorists, his aunt has revealed.

Roni Krivoi, 25, who was released by the terror group Sunday, was being held in a building in Gaza that ended up collapsing as a result of an Israeli Defense Forces airstrike, his aunt, Yelena Magid, told Israeli public radio, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“He managed to escape the rubble and break free,” she said, noting that he suffered from head trauma in the building collapse.

But because he was in unfamiliar territory, Krivoi was not able to make it far — and instead decided to hide in the Gaza Strip.

“He did not have the capacity to understand where he was and where he needed to go, so he could not navigate the open field,” Magid explained. “He was alone.”

After four days in hiding, she said, Gazan residents found Krivoi and “returned him to the terrorists’ hands,” she said, per the Times of Israel.

Krivoi was finally released on Sunday, in what Hamas terrorists referred to as a gesture of gratitude for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “efforts and support of the Palestinian cause,” Israel’s i24 News reports.

He was the first adult male to be freed from captivity, and was released in addition to 13 other Israelis and three foreign hostages.

“I asked him today: ‘How are you feeling? Do you have nightmares?’” his aunt said of the conversation she had with Krivoi following his release.

“He answered: ‘Yes, I have nightmares from the party and captivity, but that is good, it means I am handling it well.”

Other released hostages have told family members how they were totally cut off from the outside world, and only learned that their kin died in the Oct. 7 assault after being freed.

They said they were fed a bland diet of rice and pita while enduring hours-long waits for the bathroom.

But so far, all of the hostages released have been reported in stable condition after being transported to Israeli medical facilities.