Gaza's health ministry says Israel's military response has killed more than 18,800 people. (File)
Yarden Roman-Gat was never taken into Hamas' vast tunnel network after being kidnapped from Israel on October 7, but said she was instead held in a house under constant guard by men who treated her like a "trophy."
"I was watched and seen at all times," the 36-year-old physical therapist told US broadcaster CBS.
Yarden Roman-Gat tried to make her captors see her as a fellow human, the Israeli mother from the Be'eri kibbutz said in an interview on the network's "60 Minutes" program, aired on Sunday.
"They did not want to protect me. They wanted to guard their trophy," she said, describing how she was dragged across the ground after operatives realized she was only pretending to be dead.
Yarden Roman-Gat also described seeing crowds of celebrating people when she was driven into Gaza.
"My kidnappers could not help themselves, showing me off as a trophy," she said.
"But I do think I managed to make them care, I don't know, in some levels," she said. "And I do think it helped me survive."
Yarden Roman-Gat was one of about 250 hostages taken by Hamas during the Islamist group's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Gaza's health ministry says Israel's military response has killed more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, while reducing vast areas to rubble.
Asked if she was worried she would be killed in the Israeli bombardment, Yarden Roman-Gat said "Yes."
Qatar helped mediate a week-long truce last month during which some of the hostages were exchanged for the release of jailed Palestinians, many of whom had been held without charge.
When it came time for Yarden Roman-Gat to go home, she said her captors wanted her to be happy.
"They wondered, 'Why aren't I happy?'" she told CBS. "They almost demanded it. 'Be happy, be happy already. You're going home.'"
Her sister-in-law remains among the 129 hostages still believed to be held in the Gaza Strip.
"My sister-in-law Carmel and a bunch of other hostages are still in Gaza," she said. "And it's wrong. And we have to stop it. And if we can do anything to help that, we will."
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