- Title: 'I fought and I won' - freed Gaza hostage recounts abuse by Hamas for 505 days
- Date: 13th March 2025
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIAN COUTURIER, SUNEET VARMA, SAYING: "I think timelessness is something I never chased, but I have always loved. It is like limitlessness. It is like unlimited…it is like you don't have to put limits to yourself or your possibilities or your talent or things you can learn, and do, and put together. I think it's like that…you just have to kind of wo
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: captivity gaza gaza tunnels hamas hostages israel october 7
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA00E828712032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: PART OF VIDEO EDITED AT SOURCE
Omer Wenkert, one of the last living hostages who were released from Gaza under a ceasefire deal, said on a televised interview he was beaten, starved and abused by Hamas during 505 days in captivity.
Wenkert was released by Palestinian militant group Hamas on February 22, during a 6-week ceasefire that saw the release from Gaza of 33 hostages, living and slain. Israel released some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in return.
In a lengthy first interview after his release, he told Israel Channel 12 News he came out as a winner, having survived the harsh conditions and brutality of Hamas captivity.
He described getting beaten, humiliated, and starved by his captors and held most of the time in captivity alone in a dark tunnel cell.
His account echoes testimonies of other released hostages, who spoke of the mental and physical abuse they suffered from Hamas fighters who were holding them since the attacks on October 7, 2023.
Wenkert was kidnapped from a roadside bomb shelter near the Nova festival music that he attended. After being attacked with grenades and gunfire, Wenkert was loaded onto a truck, paraded in the streets of Gaza, and taken into underground tunnels, he recalled.
Part of the time he was held in tunnels together with two other hostages who are still being held -- Evyatar David and Guy Giboa-Dalal, who were last seen in a video released by Hamas on the day of Wenkert's release.
The two appeared in a vehicle watching the handover of Wenkert and two other hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza, begging to be released.
Wenkert said for those held in captivity for so long, the fear of abandonment is greater than the fear of death.
Wenkert's release came days before the end of the ceasefire agreement on March 1, and negotiations over a continuation of the deal are still unfolding.
Israel says 24 of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza are believed to be alive. But their fate remains uncertain.
Hamas' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, triggered Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. It has also internally displaced nearly Gaza's entire population and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
(Production: Avivit Delgoshen) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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