He declared, “We were intentionally starved. The captors put my life in danger for fun.”
By Rachel Avraham
Former hostage Omer Wenkert addressed the Israel Bar Association in Eilat and revealed fresh details about his time in Hamas captivity. “I had a mirror only three times in captivity where I could actually see my face. The third time, I only saw my face and saw that I was really skinny. I kept telling Guy [Gilboa Dalal] and Eviatar [David], ‘I’m not that skinny.’ They said that my bones were visible,” he said.
Gilboa-Dalal and David are still being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to the report, Thursday will mark 600 days since October 7, and 600 days in captivity for the surviving hostages.
“We were intentionally starved. The captors put my life in danger for fun. One of them brought in a bottle of pest spray, made me stand in the corner of the hallway, and sprayed it across my face while forcing my eyes open. He made sure that everything I touched would be covered in the spray,” he said. “He also decided to beat me with an iron rod,” he recalled, the Times of Israel noted. Wenkert said that when he got to the Re’im base after his release and saw his reflection, he was shocked, the Jerusalem Post added.
According to the Times of Israel, the tunnel he was kept in for most of his captivity was “about 90 centimeters (35 inches) wide, and about 9-10 meters (29-32 feet) long,” with a hole as a bathroom, he recalled. “I was on a small mattress, with my back against the wall. I was there for 420 days, I think,” he said. Wenkert said he was alone for six and a half months, and his captors would only “approach me once in a while.”
According to the Times of Israel, he said that around the 80th day of his captivity, he was moved from one underground corridor to another, which he described as “a dark room with a little lamp.” He said: “They tried to drive me crazy — to damage my sense of time. When they put down food for me, they told me to turn around, so they could leave. Bathing was once in 50 days, with a little bottle. Only after nine and a half months did I bathe for real.”
According to Haaretz, Wenkert said that he was fortunate that Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal arrived after he was held for 50 days in the latter location: “My mental state began to stabilize…it was more crowded – we slept together in a crowded hallway, the food and water were divided among four and the physical conditions became much more difficult, but the abuse against me stopped.”
Wenkert was kidnapped from Nova Music festival during the October 7 attack and was freed from Hamas captivity in February during the last cease-fire, Haaretz reported. Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, the Times of Israel reported. Among them are the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 who are believed to be alive, the Times of Israel added. According to the report, there are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said.
Photo from StandWithUs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFByFNo3yxA
