GEDERA, Israel (Reuters) – Although he fought hard to survive more than 500 days of captivity in Gaza, Israeli Omer Wenkert says he is not free. As long as hostages are being held in the Palestinian enclave, his torment will not end.
“They are still there and I wake up to this every morning and go to sleep with it every night. It’s with me every moment of the day,” he told Reuters in an interview at his home in Gedera.
Wenkert, 23, was taken hostage by Hamas during the militant group’s October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The attack precipitated Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials and left Gaza on the brink of famine, international agencies say.
Taken from the site of the Nova music festival, Wenkert said that at first he was held in isolation, at times living off one piece of mouldy pita bread a day and beaten by his captors with a lead pipe.
He survived, he said, by imagining his future after captivity, to the smallest of details.
Efforts in Doha to secure another hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire have shown no sign of breakthrough so far. Around 20 of the remaining 58 hostages are believed to still be alive.
Among them are Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, with whom Wenkert was held for around half of his captivity. But on February 22, during a two-month ceasefire, he was released and they were left behind.
Before being handed over to the Red Cross, Wenkert was led on stage by armed Hamas militants before a crowd. Hours later, Hamas published a video in which Gilboa-Dalal and David were shown watching the spectacle and begging for their release.
“They are part of me,” he said. “They don’t have their freedom and until they are all back, I cannot have mine.”
(Reporting by Eli Berlzon, Dedi Hayoun and Michal Yaakov Itzhaki; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
