Freed hostage Omer Wenkert says Hamas captors starved and endangered him ‘for fun’

Wenkert: “There were no vitamins, no minerals. Only simple carbs, like pita and rice.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

At an Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat, released hostage Omer Wenkert described how his Hamas captors would deliberately starve him and put him in danger “for fun.”

Wenkert said he had access to a mirror only three times during his captivity and was shocked to notice how skinny he had become.

“I kept telling Guy [Gilboa Dalal] and Eviatar [David], ‘I’m not that skinny.’ They said that my bones were visible,” he said.

Gilboa Dalal and David are among 58 hostages still held in Gaza. Twenty of the captives are believed to be alive.

Wenkert said conditions became worse during the Rafah operation in 2024.

“They deliberately starved us. The captors put my life in danger for fun. One brought in a bottle of pest spray, made me stand in the corner, and sprayed it in my face while forcing my eyes open. He made sure that everything I touched would be covered in the spray,” he said.

Wenkert said he was usually given only a pita and rice. On rare occasions, the pita contained fava beans or cheese, but usually, “there were no vitamins, no minerals. Only simple carbs, like pita and rice,” he said.

“I can count on two fingers the times I ate anything that wasn’t empty carbs,” he added.

Getting water depended on how diplomacy was working with Israel and availability.

“We were underground the entire time, and the temperature kept increasing. There is no air, it is hard to breathe. You don’t really feel winter or summer,” he said.

Wenkert’s mother, Niva, said she was shocked mainly by how pale he appeared.

“It was difficult to see him so thin, but the paleness was the hardest – we saw everything there: the humiliation and the abuse. The eyes told us everything, and the body bore witness to the abuse,” she said.