“Hope dies last”: Children surviving captivity as conveyed in the interviews with the Israeli children who were held in Gaza

Abstract

ObjectiveRecent armed conflicts worldwide have highlighted that child abduction and hostage-taking are pervasive and universal concerns in these contexts. However, little research exists on the phenomenon. The current study was designed to examine the question: How can a child survive captivity? MethodsThe study sample was gathered by searching popular Israeli news channels and conducting manual searches with systematic keywords on Google and YouTube. Fifty-seven recorded interviews conducted in Hebrew with 18 of the released child hostages, aged 8–18, were included and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. ResultsTwo main themes were generated: 1) The children’s emotional experiences in captivity and 2) The children’s coping strategies in captivity. ConclusionsThis study provides a unique glance into the way children survive captivity, as portrayed by 18 children who survived captivity in Gaza for over two months. The findings demonstrated the children’s incredible creativity and abilities to employ resilience from various sources. The current study is a crucial step for addressing the lacuna in research on child captivity during armed conflict. It makes vital contributions to the fields of trauma, child abuse, and resilience research. This study also recognizes the limitations in its methodology but demonstrates the viability of collecting children’s testimonies in the media when done in an ethical manner.