Freed hostage Eitan Mor said ‘to just accept I would die in Gaza’ made captivity ‘easier’

In captivity, Mor said his emotional state shifted over time, moving from cautious hope to resignation.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

After nearly two years in Hamas captivity, Eitan Mor has described the moments that led to his abduction from the Nova music festival, the violence he witnessed, and the psychological and physical toll of surviving underground in Gaza.

In an interview with Makor Rishon, Mor said he first realized the scale of the attack when armed Gazans flooded the area around the festival. “We saw a ton of Gazans coming in groups, with knives. ‘Non-combatants’ who decided to join the combat,” he said. Mor recounted urging others not to return toward the party grounds as fires burned and gunfire echoed nearby.

Mor said he and Rom Braslavski attempted to help victims they encountered while trying to escape.

“I told Rom Braslavski, who was also abducted, that I saw the bodies of girls and I wanted to evacuate them,” he said, describing how they carried the body of Shira Ayalon to a nearby alcove.

His final contact with Elyakim Libman, who would not survive the attack, came shortly afterward. “That was the last message that I got from him,” Mor said.

As they moved through the area, Mor said they encountered wounded people they could not save before being spotted by armed terrorists.

“Suddenly, three terrorists in vests approach us and yell at us in Arabic to stop,” he said. He described running under fire, with bullets passing close enough that he does not know how he survived.

Eventually, Mor said, civilians joined the pursuit. “Five people caught Rom and brought him down to the ground; two people got me,” he recalled. After briefly escaping, Mor said he was captured by a group that included children. “They had knives, saws, and hammers. Everyone together beat me with everything they had,” he said. Faced with a choice, Mor agreed to be taken into Gaza.

In captivity, Mor said his emotional state shifted over time, moving from cautious hope to resignation. He said accepting the possibility that he might never return helped him endure day to day, focusing only on survival rather than the future.

“I understood that the best thing to make things easier was to just accept that I would die in Gaza. I would either die or return after many years. This acceptance helped me live the moment,” he said.

Starvation, he said, became all-consuming. “You tell yourself, ‘Think about your family,’ but your brain only thinks about food,” Mor said. Despite losing 15 kilograms, he described nightly rituals of gratitude. “Even though it’s bad and I’m hungry… I said thank you every day for what there is,” he said, adding that remembering the wounded and bereaved gave him perspective.