A survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel delivered powerful testimony about her 54 days in captivity as she faced off with a student protest leader at a campus debate in Southern California.
The confrontation, captured in a video segment released Monday by The Gr8 Debate and filmed by Trusted Confidential Coverage (TCC), brought together former hostage Moran Stella Yanai, UCLA encampment leader Aidan Doyle, and Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef.
Released hostage Moran Stella Yanai stands up to UCLA Encampment leader Aidan Doyle, who glorified October 7 Massacre.
Doyle refuses to look at Moran as she courageously and calmly shares her testimony of being lynched and kidnapped by 13 HMS terrorists.
"Do you know how many… pic.twitter.com/aN1Ske9lCh
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) November 18, 2024
Moran Stella Yanai, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, confronted UCLA encampment leader Aidan Doyle in an emotional exchange where she detailed the brutal violence she endured after being taken to Gaza. Doyle, who had previously expressed support for the Oct. 7 attack, avoided eye contact throughout much of Yanai's testimony.
"We went to dance. We didn't attack," Yanai said of the festival, as Doyle shook his head. "Don't get annoyed. I'm really asking you as a person, do you support those actions? If you didn't support those actions and October 7th didn't happen, would we sit here, talking right now?" Doyle replied: "Well yeah, actually, we probably would be."
Yanai described how her ordeal began when she broke her leg while trying to escape through the desert near Mount Negev. She recounted the horror of being taken into Gaza, where she witnessed civilians celebrating her capture despite her visible injuries.
"When I was entering Gaza I saw 100 percent of civilians celebrating me being taken," she said, describing her broken leg and extensive bruising. "I didn't know about the other hostages, I thought it was only me."
Her family learned of her kidnapping through a viral TikTok video discovered by her 12-year-old niece, which showed Yanai pleading for her life as her captors shouted in the background.
During her 54-day captivity, Yanai was moved between seven heavily guarded locations where she faced constant surveillance, limited access to food and water, and needed permission to use bathroom facilities. She revealed that her captors told her they "planned to move on and kill as much as they could and slaughter everybody," unaware that 3,000 people were present at the festival. Nearly 400 festival attendees were killed in the attack.
they brought a hostage to a debate https://t.co/VUJGWC55pL
— Aidan Doyle (@aidandoyleee) November 18, 2024
Yanai was released last November as part of a hostage exchange agreement. Despite the trauma she endured, she emphasized her desire for dialogue and understanding, telling Doyle, "I really want to hear your side, that's my agenda, of co-existing." Currently, 101 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza.
Following the debate, Doyle took to X (formerly known as Twitter) dismissively commenting on Yanai's presence, writing "They brought a hostage to a debate." Hassan Yousef later offered a scathing critique of Doyle's performance, saying mockingly, "He came really prepared. He memorized the narrative, even perfected it more than those who had been claiming it for 70 years. He knows a lot more than Yasser Arafat on Palestine."
