The former hostage recalled reciting Psalm 23 daily to endure nearly two years in captivity.

By World Israel News Staff

Former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski said that a majority of the Jewish captives held alongside him in Gaza pretended to convert to Islam while in captivity, stressing that they did so under threats of death and torture.

Braslavski, who was abducted from the Nova Music Festival during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacres and held hostage in Gaza for nearly two years, has spoken publicly since his release about the physical and psychological abuse he endured, including sexual assault.

“At least 60 percent of the Jewish hostages ‘converted to Islam’ in captivity,” Braslavski said in an interview with Channel 14 News.

According to Braslavski, those who professed conversion later made clear to him that they did not genuinely abandon Judaism but instead did so in an effort to improve their chances of survival.

“I admit that I also considered it. But I told myself, ‘G-d in heaven is looking at you and knows everything. I will not play this game,'” Braslavski recounted.

He described his captors as frequently discussing Islam with the hostages and attempting to persuade them to abandon their Jewish faith.

“They talked to us constantly about Muhammad and the Quran,” he said, recalling that they repeatedly urged him, “Come join us. You’re wrong and we’re right.”

According to Braslavski, his captors made “many attempts” to pressure him into converting. Despite being raised in a secular household and not being religious before his kidnapping, he said he ultimately refused because of his connection to his Jewish identity.

The Jerusalem native said that before October 7, faith had played only a limited role in his life. Ironically, he said, the relentless efforts by his captors to convert him strengthened rather than weakened his Judaism.

Among the prayers that became a source of comfort during captivity was Psalm 23.

“I repeated, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me,’ several times a day,” he recounted.

He said he has observed every Shabbat since his release, adding he “will continue to keep [Shabbat] for the rest of my life.”

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“Women, adults, children. Covered in blood. They were slaughtered only because they were Israelis and Jews.”

By World Israel News Staff

Former Hamas hostage Rom Breslavski delivered a gripping account of his abduction and captivity on Sunday at the Atreju conference in Italy, hosted by the ruling Brothers of Italy party.

Speaking on stage before an Italian audience, he opened with the scenes burned into his memory from October 7. “I saw young and beautiful women thrown to the ground, riddled by bullets, their clothes torn and rivers of blood on the road, while shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar’ came from every direction,” he said.

He added that he later came across a large trash container filled with bodies. “Women, adults, children. Covered in blood. They were slaughtered only because they were Israelis and Jews.”

Breslavski, a 22-year-old security guard at the Nova music festival, spent hours rescuing wounded civilians and attempting to move bodies to prevent them from being dragged into Gaza. Survivors have described his bravery during the chaos.

At about 10 in the morning he managed to call his mother, trying to calm her by saying he was in a protected area and that the IDF was securing control. Not long afterward he was seized by terrorists and taken into the Strip, where he would be held for more than a year and a half under Islamic Jihad.

“During my captivity, Islamic Jihad murdered me mentally every single day,” he told the audience. He described how his captors tortured him and left him with both physical and psychological scars. “For two years of captivity they killed me physically and mentally every day, abused my soul and left deep scars. I know released hostages who lost their sense of justice and lost the ability to communicate.”

Videos released by the group over time revealed his severe weight loss, weakness and near total deprivation of food and water, at times surviving only on a few falafel balls or a single plate of rice. Breslavski also recalled attempts to pressure him into converting to Islam in exchange for food, something he rejected every time. He said he told them repeatedly that he was Jewish and would return or die as a Jew.

He spoke with a trembling voice about the inhumanity of what he endured and urged the crowd not to look away. “This captivity is not fit for animals, certainly not for a human being. I ask you, dear people, to continue working for justice and peace. The October 7 massacre had no justification. It was an act that was not human.”

He thanked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for inviting him and expressed heartfelt gratitude to God. “Until two months ago I was inside Gaza, forty meters underground with torn clothes, after a month without a shower and days without food. And look at me today. The wheel has turned and that is a divine miracle.”

Breslavski’s appearance in Rome offered more than testimony. It was a reminder of the cruelty inflicted on innocent Israelis, the resilience of those who survived and the moral clarity demanded from the free world. His story stands as evidence of what Israel continues to confront and why its fight against terror remains just and necessary.

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