President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Ex-hostage Omer Shem Tov says Hamas terrorists treated him like a slave but were terrified after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump’s election last November horrified Hamas terrorists holding an Israeli man in captivity, the former hostage revealed recently.
Speaking via Zoom with Fox News, Omer Shem Tov – an Israeli civilian taken hostage at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and held captive for 505 days before being released in February – recalled that he was treated like a “slave” by his captors.
“I truly suffered,” Shem Tov said in the interview, which was published on Sunday. “I was abused. I was starved in the most extreme way.”
“I was kind of their slave,” he added. “I was digging for them, and I was cleaning for them, and I was moving around bombs from place to place. I was carrying around food – amounts of food that I’ve never seen before.”
While he was kept in underground networks, Shem Tov said, the terrorists regularly watched television, mostly Al Jazeera, and he was able to overhear news developments, including President Trump’s election in 2024.
Trump’s victory left Shem Tov’s captors fearful, he recalled.
“I just remember them talking about Kamala, how they want Kamala to win. As soon as Trump was elected, I saw the fear in their eyes.”
“They knew that everything on ground was going to change, that something else was going to happen, and they were scared. They were very scared.”
Immediately, Shem Tov said, his captors began feeding him more food.
“The way they treated me changed. I could see them preparing for something bigger.”
Hours after the interview was published, Trump touted Shem Tov’s comments, posting the story to his Truth Social account.
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