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An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas last month has described the distressing conditions and abuse he says he endured during 505 days held in Gaza.
In an interview on Israeli television, Omer Wenkert, 23, said he had hidden in a bomb shelter with a close friend when it became clear the Nova music festival was under attack by Hamas and other militants from Gaza on 7 October 2023.
“You say, ‘Well … this is probably the end,’ and then one of them … started shooting us. It started to get hot and smoke came into the shelter, and then someone shouted from the entrance ‘Listen, they’re burning us.’ … There was silence in the shelter,” Wenkert told Channel 12.
“I was very busy the whole time … It’s terrible to say that, busy taking people’s bodies and putting them on my head to protect my head if they come to shoot us again, if a grenade comes.”
Wenkert survived but was forced into a pickup truck, driven into Gaza and hidden underground in a tunnel. His friend Kim Damti, a 22-year-old Irish-Israeli, was killed in or around the shelter.
In remarks widely reported in Israel, Wenkert said that he was held in a very small cell for much of his time in captivity, usually in complete darkness. The former restaurant manager described being punched, beaten with an iron bar, spat on and forced to do physical exercises.
Mistreatment by his captors was often sparked by events during the war, Wenkert said.
“Every hostage deal that falls through … it brings up a lot of frustration and rage and anger in them ... That’s just one of the reasons [for the abuse], also some days when their father is killed, their families, their elders are killed. You feel it. You know exactly what’s happening,” Wenkert said.
At night, there was “complete darkness, silence; absolute fear”, Wenkert said, saying he spoke to himself out loud for two hours a day in order to “stay sane.”
More than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the surprise Hamas raid into Israel and 251 taken hostage. In the ensuring Israeli offensive, more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, also mostly civilians, and much of the territory devastated.
After a short-lived truce in November 2023, multiple efforts to secure a further pause in hostilities have failed.
There was no independent confirmation of Wenkert’s statements, but they match those of many other accounts.
Since a ceasefire deal came into effect in mid-January, 25 living Israeli hostages have been freed by Hamas and the remains of eight returned. Israel has freed 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and withdrawn from many of its positions in Gaza.
Accounts of mistreatment and the poor physical condition of some released hostages have increased pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a deal to secure the release of the 59 still held, of whom two-thirds are thought to be dead.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended almost 10 days ago, but so far both Israel and Hamas have maintained a fragile de facto truce. There are currently daily Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which have killed dozens. Israeli military officials say they are targeting militants who threaten their forces.
Indirect talks are currently under way in Qatar but the demands of Israel and Hamas are proving difficult to reconcile. Israel has proposed an extension to the first phase of the ceasefire for up to 60 days along with further hostage and prisoner releases. Hamas want a definitive end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
