Overview

• Braslavski returned to Israel in the first phase of a Gaza deal after roughly 730–738 days in captivity and has reunited with his family.
• His mother says he endured repeated beatings, starvation and periods of shackling, with abuse intensifying between April and July of the final stretch.
• She alleges captors offered extra food and small gifts to push him to convert to Islam, which he refused; on returning home he put on tefillin.
• She recounts psychological tactics that included claims no one was advocating for him, showing him Hostage Square, and spreading false reports about Israel’s destruction.
• Reports differ on whether Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad held him, and families continue to press for the return of remaining hostages and bodies as President Trump says the job is not done.