Former Israeli hostages break silence after 505 days in captivity Hamas

Exclusive: He is buried in 100 feet underground, with a slightly air to breathe and without light, and shared a space of only six feet into three other men, recently released the hostage Tal Shchma, who shared with the Fox News Digital Survival history.

Shoha was forcibly taken from Kibbutse bery October 7, 2023. On that day, his wife and children aged fourth and eight were abducted, but he did not know that when he was thrown into the trunk of the car and entered the gas terrorists Hamas. He didn’t even know if his family was alive; Hoping to save them, he surrendered to terrorists before they set fire to the house where his family hid.

He would spend eight and a half months in an underground tunnel and five months in captivity in five different homes deep into the gas, where his captives kept him, starving him and deprived him of the main human benefits.

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But he gave himself a mission: he was determined not to lose humanity. Even in times when he was afraid he was threatened with death, he tried to remain focused. “I’m not a sacrifice. Even if it is over, I will finish her high head, looking in my eyes. They don’t break me and I don’t give myself pity. We are stronger than the other,” he said.

It’s been three weeks as he came home and he is ready to speak. Kibbutz Be’eri is only nine kilometers-cail of five and a half miles of the gasBut this short distance is practically the ocean between what it characterizes as two worlds. “Half the hour drive, two separate worlds,” he said. “The first is an incredibly surreal, rigid in mind. And only in 30 minutes (on this side of the border), the world of prudence, logic, dignity and compassion.”

He remembers every detail of his 505 days in captivity. Tal wants to tell his story for the sake of two captive colleagues Who stays behindstarving, abusing and at the constant risk of death. “Just as someone leaves the living, I left the tunnel in which I kept and was born again,” he says. But the men he calls “brothers”, David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal are still underground. “I can’t sleep at night, knowing they’re still there,” he says.

October 7, 2023

Tal and his wife and children came from the north of Israel to Kibbutz to spend the Hyda Tori holiday with his wife’s parents and were in the house when the terrorist attack began. He said everyone entered the safe hall, and when the shooting sounds were approaching, they tried to barricts themselves inside. But the terrorists opened the window, and Tal was afraid they could throw a grenade if the family did not give up. On the same street, terrorists set fire to every second home, burning people alive.

“I went out and raised my hands,” he said. “The man with the murder in the eyes brought me to the road and to the vehicle. I saw about 40 strongly armed terrorists. Some of them shot me on the phone. I was shocked – there was a whole battalion of terrorists Hamas, the bodies of the people I knew on earth, and they laughed without fear.”

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Terrorists threw him into the trunk of the car and drove across the border, into the gas. A crowd gathered there. “Teens with sticks ran to me, trying to defeat me from all sides,” he says. Having taken him from the car, his captives sent a rifle to him, ready for him to dug him and tried to make him kneel. “I said,” I can’t control me or not, “and I raised my hands – but I refused to kneel.” If you want to kill me, kill me, but you won’t do me as an ISIS. “

He was then advised on the streets in what he called the Victory March. “They shouted, ‘Soldier! Pig! Zionist! “The mafia gathered, boys with wooden clubs who tried to hit me.

34 days of isolation

He was first taken to a family where he was held alone and always boiled, for 34 days. Although he was allowed to take a shower periodically, the captivity otherwise was serious.

His food was strictly diet. “I had a pita bread for the first three days. Then they stopped me,” he says. “Foods have decreased. Some days I would get three spoons of avocado and three dates, or half the orange from the tree in the yard.”

But the worst suffering is not the knowledge or his family. “I am 40 years old. I have never felt suffering in my life. Such suffering. Insulation, remaining myself with tireless thoughts – it was worse than even extreme hunger.”

To survive, he made a wonderful decision. “I had to accept that my family died,” Tal says. “I was sitting on the floor and imagined myself at their funeral. I was standing in front of the grave – one big for my wife and two small for my children – and I glorified each of them. I thanked them for the time when we told them to move on. I sobbed but did not allow my invaders to see me cry.

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505 days in hell

On the 34th day of their captivity, the Evator David and Guy Hilga Dalal were brought to the house. Hamas terrorists tortured them daily, striking them, denying them, eating them before them. The hostage was allowed only about 300 calories a day – the weight of Shohama decreased from 174 pounds to 110 pounds when he was released – and the performance was forbidden. “We couldn’t move from our beds and talk. We whispered,” he said.

Then came a shine of hope. On the 50th day of his captivity, Tal received evidence of life from his wife – a letter stating that she and children were hostage but released. “I read it, my hands tremble,” he said. “The most important thing that happened – my family was safe. I didn’t need to be a father and husband who defended them. Now I could focus on my war, the one I knew how to fight, to survive.”

Tunnel

By June 2024, Tal, Guy and Evator were moved to the ambulance that Hamas used For restraint transportation of hostages, into an underground tunnel, where there was another captivity, Omer Venkert. There were four mattresses and a hole on the floor on the floor. The space was illuminated by a single, dim light. “It took me a few weeks to stop feeling like the walls are closing to adapt to the deprivation of oxygen,” Tal says.

They were given only 300 milliliters of water a day – just over 10 ounces. They could use it either drink or wash your hands. The rice was all that they had to eat. Months passed. They were beaten, controlled by cameras, accidentally deprived of food and sleep. The guards were tunnel diggers of Hamas – dug every day, even when the war was raging above. “Hamas never stopped digging tunnels,” Tal says. “No one day.”

The conditions were so bad that both he and the Evator developed serious infections. But the months would pass before the doctor will come to them. “My leg became blue, yellow and purple with internal bleeding,” he recalls. “They gave us all blood flowers, fearing that we can develop clots from prolonged real estate.

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But the abuse continued. A new guard came, even tougher than the previous ones. “He made some of us on his knees like dogs and knocked us down,” he says. “He would come to shout that we were dirty Jews, hit us, and then after 10 minutes he smiled and brought food.”

Then what seemed miracle. Tal and Omer were called part Dealing with the hostage In February. When he was taken outside after the monthly underground, he still tied his eyes, he felt moisture on his face. “Is it rain?” he asked. “No,” his invaders replied, “is Ross. And I realized that my name, tal, “race” in Hebrew.

Before it was handed over to the Red Cross, humiliations were humiliated and returned to Israel: a procession on stage in the heart of Rafa, where he was forced to repeat Hamas’s propaganda. But he said he didn’t care – he went home. When he arrived in Israel, he was taken to the Rey, where he was waiting for his wife, and their two children, soon Yahel. “It was a dream, but it was still a dream,” Tal says. “It took a few days to fully understand what it was real. It was hard to take. Emotions flooded me as I sailed over everything.”

And there were tragic news to absorb. On October 7, eleven members of the Tal family were abducted. His mother-in-law Shoshan Haran was accepted together with two other relatives-Sharon Avigdora and her daughter Noam Avigdora, who were later released in the first hostage deal. Two other relatives who came from the United States to celebrate his birthday, 59-year-old Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie were also abducted from Kibbius.

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And there was joy. Four new babies were born during their captivity. “Among us, Jewish hostages were purity,” he said. “There was a dignity. The terrorists brought any horrors they wanted, inflicted any cruelty and the pain they could have imposed their inhumanity. But in our space we kept our internal purity, our humanity.