The statements made by the Israeli detainee, who was released by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), angered Israeli analysts, who considered them propaganda for the resistance and a failure of Benjamin Netanyahu's government to deal with the media and psychological warfare file, and demanded that those released be prevented from speaking to the media.
Yochbad Lifchtes, 85, confirmed at a press conference held in an Israeli hospital the day after Hamas voluntarily released her after Egyptian-Qatari mediation that the resistance members treated her and her detainees with kindness, provided her with health care and medicines, and ate with them the same food.
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Anat Marom, an international expert on geopolitics and global crises, said on Channel 12 that despite the psychological warfare and the breadth of perception and strength experienced by Levechts, and despite the sympathy for her, this image in which she appeared represents a victory for Hamas.
"It's horrible to say this, it's terrible, but it's very smart and skillful, it's brutal and murderous, but this image — which you talk about that they not only treated her with kindness and sensitivity but cared about bringing the medicine she needed or her replacement medicine — will reverberate in favor of Hamas around the world."
According to the Israeli crisis expert, Hamas "speaks to the world with the words of this elderly woman."
Former Mossad leader Gilles Shoresh said the release should have been told only to the intelligence services "because there are words that can only be said to the intelligence services and the families of the kidnapped, while they should not be said to the public."
In Shoresh's view, the propaganda and psychological warfare machine will act on these statements, and therefore "Israel must be ready for the media by going to the detention facility and acting responsibly."
Reserve General Nahman Shay, a member of the Leaders for Israel's Security movement, said it was "corrupt, just as the information that morning (October 7) was also corrupt."
In an interview on Channel 13, Shay said: "It doesn't make sense to take an 85-year-old woman who slept only 3 or 4 hours during the night and then put her in front of dozens of cameras and hundreds of journalists."
Shay interpreted what happened as "proof that there is no direction, no system, no one to put things in order, and that there is no government."
Communications and Strategy Advisor Avi Benyahu said that the dialogue between the security and political levels must be close and continuous, stressing that he is pained to say this, but he knows that "the relations - between Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir - are not good, and that the dialogue between them is not good."
"I know there is Gantz (former defense minister) and Gadi Eisenkot (former chief of staff); if not, they should show up and give their testimony. This is their job and they take responsibility."