Ex-hostage: ‘Despite the torture, I always believed I’d return home’

Kidnapped from the Nova Festival, Omer Wenkert recalled hunger, abuse and isolation in Gaza’s tunnels.

By World Israel News Staff

A former Hamas hostage spoke out about his ordeal to Hebrew-language media on Sunday morning, describing the bond he shared with fellow captives and the hardships they endured.

Omer Wenkert, 22, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, and released some 500 days later — in February 2025 — as part of a ceasefire and hostage deal.

Speaking to the Morning News with Niv Raskin, Wenkert recounted enduring “extreme hunger” as well as “neglect, abuse, and physical and mental humiliation” at the hands of his captors.

Despite the suffering, he said, his survival came from an unwavering belief that he would one day return home.

“I always believed and had no doubt that I would return home,” Wenkert said. “I believed that the Israeli people would not give up” on bringing him and the other hostages back.

For six months, Wenkert was held alone, which he described as the most difficult period of his captivity. Later, he was joined by other hostages, including Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, both abducted from the Nova Festival, and Tal Shoham, who was kidnapped while visiting relatives at Kibbutz Be’eri during the Simchat Torah holiday.

Shoham was freed alongside Wenkert in February, but David and Gilboa-Dalal remain in Hamas captivity.

The presence of fellow hostages “changed everything” for Wenkert, he told the Morning News.

“They saved my mental health. I don’t know how I would have managed to survive without them,” he said. “We had a very special bond.”

Since his return to Israel, Wenkert said he has made major progress in recovering from his ordeal. Still, he emphasized that as long as hostages remain in Gaza, he cannot fully heal.

Speaking of his friends still in captivity, Wenkert admitted to feelings of deep frustration. He said that he felt “helpless” because he cannot secure their freedom.