Freed hostage says division among Israelis ‘strengthens Hamas’

Shem Tov said his captors would gloat and describe how Israel “was destroying itself from within.”

By World Israel News Staff

Freed hostage Omer Shem Tov, along with his mother, Shelly, told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that division within Israel strengthens Hamas.

Recounting his 505 days in captivity, Shem Tov said his captors would show him videos of groups of Israelis opposed to each other and showing division “in the most extreme ways possible.”

He added that the Israeli disunity “strengthens them (Hamas) significantly.”

Shem Tov said his captors would gloat and describe how Israel “was destroying itself from within.” He also emphasized the importance of bringing the hostages home “as soon as possible. They are all going through hell.”

After his release last month, Shelly Shem Tov discussed how her son kept Shabbat in captivity.

“Since he was a small boy, Omer was the one who said the Kiddush (prayer recited over wine on the Sabbath), his mother, Shelly, recalled.

“One day, they received a small bottle of grape juice and some salted pretzels,” she said. “They took the salt off the pretzels” and saved it.

“Every Friday night, they took a piece of toilet paper and put it on their heads as a kippah, and Omer said Kiddush,” she continued. They would pretend that a few pretzels were the challah bread, and Omer would salt them, according to tradition, and say the blessing.

Inspired by the stories told by released hostages about her son’s dedication, Shelly Shem Tov also began observing Shabbat.

She recalled observing Shabbat with other hostage families through an organization called Kesher Yehudi (Jewish Connection).

“It was a Shabbat that I will never forget – the first Shabbat in my life that I observed according to its rules,” she recalled on Friday as she looked forward to seeing her son. “The connection between the families of the kidnapped and the ultra-Orthodox families who surrounded us was amazing. We hugged, prayed, sang and spent a holy Shabbat.”

“There is no coincidence in the world; everything from Him is blessed, and everyone is a messenger,” she said ahead of his release, adding that since then, “more than I kept Shabbat, Shabbat kept me, and by God’s grace, on this Shabbat I will get to hug my Omer, exactly one year later, and it’s amazing how precise everything is.”