Hamas tried to use Omer Shem Tov in a terror trap designed to kill IDF soldiers, the released former hostage revealed in an interview with Channel 12's Uvda program on Thursday evening.
In the interview, Shem Tov recounted how terrorists began spreading what Shem Tov estimated to be around three million shekels on the floor, before instructing him to blow up a building on top of the tunnel they were keeping him captive, he said. When he refused to participate in the trap, he recounted how the terrorists threatened to shoot him in the head.
"Shoot me in the head, then,” Shem Tov responded.
The Israelis abducted by Hamas on October 7
The released hostage, who was abducted from the Nova Music festival on October 7 and spent his 505 days as a captive in Gaza, also recounted being starved underground and given “salty water.”
“There was a good party and then suddenly the music stopped. You start hearing gunshots and you see people falling to the floor too,” he described, speaking of October 7 and Ori Danino’s attempts to rescue him.
Danino was one of six hostages found murdered in a tunnel in Rafah. The 25-year-old successfully escaped the massacre but was abducted while returning to save more festival attendees.
Danino, Shem Tov said, "kept telling us: 'Get your head down, get your head down,' Ori really, really took care of us.”
Despite Danino’s efforts, their car was captured and terrorists quickly descended upon them. “One of the terrorists grabed him (Danino), threw him to the floor and tied his hands. [Then] he got on me, stepped on me, beat me,” and threw Shem Tov in front of the car’s front wheels.
“The only thing going through my mind right [then] is that he 's going to crush me,” Shem Tov explained, adding that his mind conjured thoughts of Gilad Shalit and his five years in captivity.
Omer Shem Tov's time as a hostage in Gaza
From the moment he arrived in Gaza, Shem Tov told Uvda he knew he had to try to build a connection with his captors. He asked the terrorist holding him his name and sang ‘Queen of the Roses’ after being instructed to sing for them.
For 50 days, Shem Tov was held alongside Itay Regev, being shuffled between apartments. At one point, he recounted how buildings shook around them as a result of IDF airstrikes.
Shem Tov described his fears at being left alone when Regev was released. “Suddenly, there was silence in the apartment, and then the pressures began, the concerns began, the feeling of loneliness. I just felt like I'm going crazy," he shared.
He was then transferred to a small, cramped tunnel where he spent 50 days without light and was only given a biscuit a day to eat – a significant drop from the two pitas a day he had received in the early days of his captivity.“The water during this period,” he said, “was salty.”
"I was very, very thin. I could already see the bones," he said, speaking on the impact of his prolonged starvation.He was eventually taken to a larger tunnel, where he spent 400 days. His captors gave up on their interrogations after becoming pre-occupied with nearby IDF soldiers, he said.
While he escaped interrogations, which other released hostages have described as incredibly violent, he shared that the nearby soldiers only worsened the terrorists’ attitude and treatment toward him. They would spit on him and curse at him, he shared.
Knowing the IDF was operating nearby, Shem Tov fantasized about escaping but his attempt was thwarted quickly after the idea was formed.
“I said okay. The IDF is above me right now, I have a chance to escape . It was at night, everyone was asleep," he recalled. " I looked around to see if anyone was reacting. No one was reacting. I got to my feet, my heart was pounding” but as he approached one of his captors, the terrorist took out a pistol before lowering it back to the ground.
“I believe it was fear. To be a deterrent," he said.
As over a year passed, Shem Tov was sometimes able to learn snippets of news from Al Jazeera. It was from watching a broadcast that he learnt he was one of 33 hostages to be released in a ceasefire-hostage deal.
Once the ceasefire began, Shem Tov said Hamas began giving him more food.
After 450 days underground, he was finally able to “breathe fresh air,” which he described as “heaven.”
While Shem Tov is now free, he admitted to feeling guilt about the others left behind.
"You tell yourself: Why am I here and they are not? What about them? I don't understand why I am here and they are not. In what way am I worth more? We are the same. There should not be a list. It should be everyone and that's it.”
Shem Tov concluded by stating he believed only another ceasefire deal would bring home the remaining 59 hostages and the hold up on one was down to politics.
