At Hostages Square, Alon Ohel plays piano named for him

Released hostage Alon Ohel visited Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square for the first time on Wednesday afternoon and played the yellow piano that his family had stationed there and which carried his name while he was held captive by terror groups in Gaza.

Sitting on the piano bench alternately with his parents and with his brother, Ohel — one of the 20 last living hostages released from Gaza on October 13 after two years of captivity — warmed up his fingers on the keys, surrounded by hundreds of people in the square.

Ohel, 24, didn’t offer any statements while visiting the square, although TV cameras surrounded him as he played and sang Yehudit Ravitz’s “Song without a Name,” one of his favorite songs, which he he hummed in captivity, according to those who were held with him.

Ohel, a pianist, was meant to begin his studies last year at the Rimon School of Music.

Last November, his family organized simultaneous performances in Israel and around the world to mark 400 days of Hamas captivity for Ohel and the other captives in Gaza.

Musicians played on yellow pianos distributed to public spaces around the world by the Ohels to raise awareness for their son, who was taken captive on October 7, 2023, from a field shelter near the Nova music rave.

Each piano during that event bore a sign reading “You Are Not Alone,” symbolizing the struggle to bring the hostages home as well as a play on Alon’s name.

On June 10, Idit, Ohel’s mother, asked supporters to listen to the song “Song without a Name” at full volume or with headphones at 9 p.m.

At another time, singer-songwriter Ravitz recorded another version of the song to welcome him home.

Idit Ohel recently posted on social media that her son is in the process of rehabilitating himself, eating and smiling again, and working to keep the eyesight in his damaged right eye.

He underwent eye surgery and an orthopedic procedure this month.

The former hostage’s eye was injured by bullet shrapnel from a Hamas gunman during the terror group’s October 7 massacre of Nova festival partygoers.

The family is sharing links on social media to support their son’s rehabilitation.