Former Israeli hostage silence breaks after 505 days in Hamas captivity

Exclusive: 100 feet underground buried, hard to breathe with enough air and no light, and to share a location with three other men to share a location at just six feet from three feet, recently released with Fox News Digital.

Shoham was forcibly taken from the Kibutz Bettery on 7 October 2023. The age of his wife and children, four and eight, was also abducted that day, but he did not know when he was thrown into the trunk of a car and went to Gaza by Hamas terrorists. He did not even know whether his family was alive or not; Expecting to save them, they surrendered to the terrorists, before they set fire to the house where their family was hidden.

He will spend eight and a half months in an underground tunnel and there will be a captive of one and five months in five different houses inside Gaza, where his prisoners shook him, hungry him and deprived him of basic human comfort.

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But he gave himself a mission: he was firm to not lose his humanity. Even in those moments when he feared that he was facing death, he tried to focus. He said, “I am not a victim. Even if it finishes, I will finish it with my head, will see death in the eyes. They will not break me, and I will not surrender to self-repair. We are stronger than the other side,” he said.

It has been three weeks of coming home, and he is ready to speak. Kibbutz be’eri is about five and a half miles from just nine kilometers-five and a half kilometers from just nine kilometers, but this short distance is practically a ocean that it describes as two worlds. “Half-one hour drive, two different worlds,” he said. “First – incredibly real, cruel, beyond the cause. And just 30 minutes away (this side of the border), the world of purity, logic, dignity and compassion.”

He recalls every detail of his 505 days in captivity. Tal wants to tell his story for the sake of two fellow prisoners who stay behind, die of hunger, abuse them and are at constant risk of death. “As if a person is alive from a womb, I came out of the tunnel in which I was held and born again,” they say. But the men whom they call their “brothers,” Evatar David and Gai Gilboa-Dalal are still kept underground. “I can’t sleep at night, knowing that they are still there,” they say.

October 7, 2023

Taal and his wife and children came to Kibutaz Betteri from the north of Israel, who were at home to spend the Simchahat Tora holiday with their wife’s parents and when the terrorist attack started, he was at home. He said that everyone entered the safe room, and as the sound of bullets came closer, he tried to go inside themselves. But the terrorists opened the window, and the Tal feared that if the family did not surrender, they could toss in the grenade. On the same road, the terrorists set fire to every other house, making people alive.

“I went out and raised my hand,” he said. “A man who murdered him in his eyes took me on the road and on a vehicle. I saw about 40 heavy armed terrorists. Some of them were filming me on my phone. I was in shock – there was a whole battalion of Hamas terrorists inside our kibtz, the bodies of those who knew that I was killed on the ground, and they were laughing,”

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The terrorists threw him into the trunk of a car and took him to Gaza, across the border. There, a crowd gathered. “Teenagers ran towards me with sticks, try to defeat me from all sides,” they say. Taking him from the car, his prisoners pointed to a rifle, ready, agreed, to execute him, and tried to force him to kneel. “I said,” I can’t control whether you kill me or not, “and I raised my hands – but I refused to kneel.” If you want to kill me, kill me, but you will not execute me like Isis. “

He was then paraded on the streets, which he described as “Vijay March”. “They were screaming, ‘Soldiers! Pig! Zione!’ A crowd gathered around, trying to kill me with wooden clubs.

34 days of isolation

He was first taken to a family house, where he was alone, alone and always shocking for 34 days. Although he was allowed to bathe from time to time, imprisonment was otherwise serious.

His food was strictly rationed. “For the first three days, I had beaten bread. Then, they stopped giving me,” they say. “The food supply was reduced. In a few days, I will receive three teaspoons of avocado and three dates, or half orange from a tree in the yard.”

But the worst pain was not knowing whether his family was alive or not. “I am 40 years old. I have never experienced pain in my life in this way. Isolation, being alone with tireless thoughts -this was worse than extreme hunger.”

To bear, he took a heartbreaking decision. “I had to accept that my family was dead,” says Taal. “I sat on the floor and imagined myself in his funeral. I was standing in front of a grave – one big for my wife, and two small for my children – and I provoked each of them. I thanked them for that time. I asked them to move forward. I did not let my prisoners cry.” To bury me in my family – “

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505 days in hell

On the 34th day of their imprisonment, Evatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were brought into the house. Hamas terrorists tortured him daily, killed him, refused to eat him while having food in front of him. The hostages were allowed only 300 calories a day – the weight of Shoham fell to 174 pounds when they were released – and forbidden to speak. “We could not move or talk beyond our beds. We whispered everything,” he said.

Then got some glimpse of Asha. On the 50th day of his imprisonment, Taal found proof of life from his wife – a letter that tells him that he and the children were taken hostage, but were being released. “I read it, shaking my hands,” he said. “The most important thing was – my family was safe. I did not need to be a father and husband. Now, I could focus on my war, which I knew how to fight, to survive.”

Tunnel

By June 2024, Tail, Gai and Aviater were transferred by an ambulance, which Hamas had used to carry the hostage in an underground tunnel, where already another captive, Omar Venkart. There were four mattresses on the floor and a hole in the ground for a toilet. The space was illuminated by a single, slow lightbalb. “It took me weeks to prevent feeling that the walls are closing, to be suited to oxygen deficiency,” Taal is called.

They were given only 300 ml of water in a day – slightly more than 10 ounces. They could use it to either drink or wash their hands. They had to eat rice. Month passed. They were beaten, monitored by cameras, dismantled food and sleep. Guard Hamas was the tunnel digging – excavation every day, even above the war above. “Hamas never stopped digging the tunnels,” says Taal. “Not for a day.”

The circumstances were so bad that both of them and both developed serious infections. But it would be months ago when a doctor will come to see them. “My foot turned blue, yellow and purple with internal bleeding,” he remembers. “They gave us all blood thinners, fearing that we could develop clots with a long time. Finally, he felt that the issue was malnutrition and provides us vitamin supplements for seven days. It tasted it like a dog food, but it dramatically improved our condition.”

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But the abuse continued. A new guard came, which was even more violent than the previous one. “They kneeled some of us like dogs and defeated us,” they say. “He used to shout that we were dirty Jews, hit us, and then 10 minutes later, he would smile and bring food.”

Then, what seemed like a miracle. Fal and Omer were named as part of the hostage-resolution in February. When he was out after being underground for several months, he also felt moisture on his face by blindfolding. “What is rain?” He asked. “No,” his prisoners replied, “This is dew.” And I realized, my name, rhythm, Hebrew has ‘dew’.

Before handing over to Red Cross were insults and returned to Israel: A procession on a stage in Rafah’s heart where he was forced to repeat Hamas Publicity. But he said that he does not care – he was going home. When he arrived in Israel, he was taken to the Reem base, where his wife, etc., and his two children, Nev and Yahel, were waiting for him. “This dream had come true, yet it felt like a dream,” Taal says. “It took a few days to fully understand that it was real. It was difficult to take it. Emotions filled me, as if I was floating up everything.”

And there was sad news to absorb. Eleven members of Tal’s family were kidnapped or murdered on 7 October. Adi’s father, Athlam Haran, and two uncles, Lilach and Evatara Kipnis, died. Her mother-in-law, Shoshan Haran, was taken with two other relatives–Sheron Avigadori and her daughter, Noam Avigadori-K, which was later released in the first host deal. Two other relatives who came from the United States to celebrate birthdays, 59 -year -old Judith Ranan, and his 17 -year -old daughter, Natalie were also abducted with Kibutz Nahl Oz.

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And was happy. During his captivity, four new children were born into the family. “Between us, the Jewish hostage, there was purity,” he said. “There was dignity. Whatever horrific the terrorists wanted, whatever cruelty and pain could be applied to us. But within our space, within our space, we preserved our internal hygiene, our humanity between each other. And it was important to make it unwavering.”