Latest news with #OmerWenkert
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Yahoo
'I am their voice': Former hostage Omer Wenkert urges for release of remaining hostages
"It is our duty to do everything in our power to bring them back. All of them – now!" Omer said at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square. Former hostage Omer Wenkert called for the immediate return of the 50 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, speaking at the 'Singing for Their Return' event held at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening. The event featured song and prayer and was attended by bereaved families, the wives of reservists, and IDF soldiers. 'There are still 50 brothers and sisters of all of us who remain in Hamas's hell,' Wenkert said. 'I stand here today – and I am their voice! I cry out their pain and their pleas to come home! It is our duty to do everything in our power to bring them back. All of them – now!' In his speech, Wenkert recounted his abduction and captivity by Hamas. 'On October 7, 2023, I was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Re'im Junction,' he said. 'I was returned from Hamas captivity about four months ago after 505 days – days spent underground in a narrow, short, low, and dark tunnel.' He described how he had been at the Nova music festival with his murdered friend Kim Damti, before being taken captive. 'Around 8 a.m., after experiencing hell in a burning shelter where endless grenades were thrown at us, cruel terrorists stripped off my clothes, tied my hands, put me in a van, and within about an hour, I arrived underground where I remained until my last day in captivity.' Wenkert recalled meeting another hostage, Liam, an 18-year-old from Kibbutz Re'im, who had been taken from his bed with a bleeding gunshot wound. 'After about three days, this was the first time Liam and I could speak,' Wenkert said. 'I remember he told me, 'Be strong, brother.' I looked at him and understood – I realized that for his sake, I had to be strong.' 'I immediately lifted myself from the ground, squeezed his hand, looked into his eyes, and said, 'Don't lose hope – we'll eventually return home.'' Liam was later released, but Wenkert remained alone for 197 more days before being joined by Tal Shoham – who was released with him – and two others, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, who remain in captivity. Wenkert said he clung to three things that kept him going. 'First – my promise to Liam. I knew I had to keep it. Second, the belief that my family and my freedom were waiting for me. That one day, the sky would spread above me again. Third – gratitude,' he said. 'I learned to be satisfied with little. I said thank you every hour of every day for still being alive.' He emphasized that Gilboa-Dalal, David, and 48 others are still being held in Gaza. 'They are still living an ongoing nightmare every single moment – experiencing endless and intensifying hell, starving, humiliated, miserable, and crying out to return to freedom,' he said. 'I want to say thank you to everyone who is here today and visits this square every day,' Wenkert said. 'I want to thank the people of Israel for supporting me, my family, and all the hostages still in Gaza. I want to thank the soldiers who fought for my return and defend our country.' He also paid tribute to the fallen. 'I want to commemorate and remember all those who have fallen in this campaign and in all of Israel's campaigns in general,' he said. Wenkert concluded with a reminder that bringing the hostages back "is the most urgent priority,' he said. 'And I want you to always remember – as long as the sky is above you, freedom exists in your lives, and family or people who love you are by your side, you are more than okay. All of them – now!'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
I'm not free until all hostages return, says former Israeli Gaza captive
GEDERA, Israel (Reuters) - Although he fought hard to survive more than 500 days of captivity in Gaza, Israeli Omer Wenkert says he is not free. As long as hostages are being held in the Palestinian enclave, his torment will not end. "They are still there and I wake up to this every morning and go to sleep with it every night. It's with me every moment of the day," he told Reuters in an interview at his home in Gedera. Wenkert, 23, was taken hostage by Hamas during the militant group's October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The attack precipitated Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials and left Gaza on the brink of famine, international agencies say. Taken from the site of the Nova music festival, Wenkert said that at first he was held in isolation, at times living off one piece of mouldy pita bread a day and beaten by his captors with a lead pipe. He survived, he said, by imagining his future after captivity, to the smallest of details. Efforts in Doha to secure another hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire have shown no sign of breakthrough so far. Around 20 of the remaining 58 hostages are believed to still be alive. Among them are Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, with whom Wenkert was held for around half of his captivity. But on February 22, during a two-month ceasefire, he was released and they were left behind. Before being handed over to the Red Cross, Wenkert was led on stage by armed Hamas militants before a crowd. Hours later, Hamas published a video in which Gilboa-Dalal and David were shown watching the spectacle and begging for their release. "They are part of me," he said. "They don't have their freedom and until they are all back, I cannot have mine."
Reuters
15-05-2025
- Reuters
I'm not free until all hostages return, says former Israeli Gaza captive
GEDERA, Israel, May 15 (Reuters) - Although he fought hard to survive more than 500 days of captivity in Gaza, Israeli Omer Wenkert says he is not free. As long as hostages are being held in the Palestinian enclave, his torment will not end. "They are still there and I wake up to this every morning and go to sleep with it every night. It's with me every moment of the day," he told Reuters in an interview at his home in Gedera. Wenkert, 23, was taken hostage by Hamas during the militant group's October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The attack precipitated Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials and left Gaza on the brink of famine, international agencies say. Taken from the site of the Nova music festival, Wenkert said that at first he was held in isolation, at times living off one piece of mouldy pita bread a day and beaten by his captors with a lead pipe. He survived, he said, by imagining his future after captivity, to the smallest of details. Efforts in Doha to secure another hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire have shown no sign of breakthrough so far. Around 20 of the remaining 58 hostages are believed to still be alive. Among them are Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, with whom Wenkert was held for around half of his captivity. But on February 22, during a two-month ceasefire, he was released and they were left behind. Before being handed over to the Red Cross, Wenkert was led on stage by armed Hamas militants before a crowd. Hours later, Hamas published a video in which Gilboa-Dalal and David were shown watching the spectacle and begging for their release. "They are part of me," he said. "They don't have their freedom and until they are all back, I cannot have mine."
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why I Vowed to Speak for the Hamas Hostages Who Can't
Protestors call for the ceasefire deal to continue and the hostages to be released on Feb, 22, 2025 in Tel Aviv after six people were released by Hamas, including Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed. Credit - Alexi J. Rosenfeld—Getty Images Some mornings I wake up and forget, for a split second, that I'm free. Then I remember the silence. The darkness. The wet concrete. And the two young men who were lying beside me, deep underground, who are still there. Their names are Evyatar David and Guy Dalal. We were held together along with Omer Wenkert for eight and a half months in a Hamas tunnel—just 40 ft. long, less than 3 ft. wide. We slept on soaked mattresses, shared a single pita a day, and took turns whispering stories from home to keep ourselves sane. We were strangers when we entered that darkness. But we became brothers. It's been more than 100 days since President Trump returned to the White House and the ceasefire deal that brought me, Omer, and dozens of others back was achieved. I haven't been back above ground for that long—but even now, every breath of fresh air, every step in the sun, every quiet moment with my family feels like something sacred. Time feels different now. I carry it more carefully. Because I know how quickly time can run out—and how brutal each passing day is for those still living in captivity. I spent 505 days as a hostage—held deep beneath the ground. We were watched constantly by a surveillance camera. A bomb was planted above us, rigged to detonate if Israeli forces came too close. We were told we would be blown up if anyone tried to save us. We were threatened, degraded, and at times tortured—not treated as people, but as objects to be controlled and broken. Read More: The Families of Hostages on Life After Oct. 7 I am not a soldier. I was kidnapped on Oct. 7 from my in-laws' home in Kibbutz Be'eri. My wife and children were with me. When terrorists couldn't break open the door of our safe room, they came in through the window. They dragged me out, threw me into a trunk, and then paraded me through the streets of Gaza. Before we were separated, I looked into my nine-year-old son's terrified eyes and made a choice no parent should ever face. I told him the truth—that I didn't know if we were going to die. I couldn't lie to him in what might have been our final moments together. For 50 agonizing days after that, I did not know if my family had survived. It was a rare flicker of hope when I learned in November they were about to be released. Evyatar and Guy, both 22 years old, had been taken from the Nova music festival. Their friends were slaughtered around them. By the time we met in captivity, they were in terrible shape—starved, handcuffed, terrified. For weeks, they'd been fed almost nothing. Their hands were bound behind their backs, their ankles tied, their heads covered with plastic bags. But somehow, they still had spirit. During those last eight and a half months we spent together in the tunnel, they held on. Read More: 'I Was Saved by a Miracle.' A Survivor Recounts the Horror of the Hamas Attack on Israel's Supernova Festival The men who held us didn't see us as human. They tortured us for fun. Sometimes they would light pieces of paper on fire to suck up the small amount of oxygen from the tunnel. We would choke and have to lie on the floor to avoid suffocating. We came up with daily rituals just to remember who we were. In a place built to break us, we held each other up. We became a unit. We became family. When I walked out of that tunnel in February, I made a vow: I would speak for those who can't. President Trump, I was released in a deal your administration helped progress. Your decision to make the hostages a priority helped bring many people home. I am one of them. I'm here today because this issue was treated with the urgency it demands. But we are not done. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Hamas captivity. And every day that passes makes it harder for them to survive. Hamas didn't release us out of goodwill. They responded to pressure—the kind that comes from international focus and relentless advocacy. I am asking you to do that again to bring every hostage home—both the living and the dead. But a new plan to expand the military operation in Gaza is not the way forward. Every step deeper into this war feels like a step further away from Evyatar and Guy—and the chance to bring them home alive. We can't let military momentum override moral clarity. Evyatar and Guy are not statistics. They are sons. Friends. Music lovers. Gentle, funny, full of life. They deserve to walk in the sun again. They deserve a future. I have seen the darkness. I have felt the weight of airless days, of hunger, of silence. But I also know what it means to breathe again. President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, you made that possible for me. Please—bring them home too. Let them breathe again. Contact us at letters@
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Absolute fear': Israeli hostage describes abuse during 505-day Hamas captivity
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.
