Alon Ohel’s mother says doctors hopeful he’ll regain sight in injured eye; seeing hostage rallies gave him strength to survive captivity

By Jessica Steinberg

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15 October 2025, 7:55 pm

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Released hostage Alon Ohel (C) is seen reunited with his family at the IDF's Re'im base after over two years in Hamas captivity on October 13, 2025. (IDF)

Idit Ohel, mother of released hostage Alon Ohel, delivers a statement to the press surrounded by her husband and two other children at Beilinson Hospital.

She relays a message from Alon, saying that he saw how the nation of Israel fought for him and how strangers would hold up pictures of him, and that the show of solidarity gave him the strength needed to survive captivity.

Ohel says her son is worn out from an unimaginable experience, but is improving day by day.

“We always knew he had the emotional ability to survive, but honestly, his abilities were beyond anything we could imagine,” says Ohel.

After living for two years with shrapnel in his right eye — leaving him with limited vision — and his head, Alon will need surgery, she says, adding that medical staff believe that his eyesight can be improved significantly.

Ohel thanks Israel’s security forces and the government for the deal that brought about Alon’s release, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal, the hostage negotiating team, including the government’s hostage envoy Gal Hirsch and IDF negotiator Nitzan Alon. She also thanks US President Donald Trump and his staff, and the German and Serbian ambassadors for their help and support over the past two years.

Ohel also thanks their family and friends, and “our nation who stood with us, and didn’t stop for a moment, saying ‘You’re not alone, we’re with you.'”

“You were the light at the end of our tunnel and Alon’s tunnel, because of you, we were not alone.”

Ohel also speaks tearfully about the state of the country, and the need to rebuild it into a home that is united, not divided, and which “all of its citizens feel they are part of.”

“It’s up to us to ensure that the new home we build here will be a complete home,” she says, “that it will be a safe home, in the deepest sense of the word.”

Above all else, she says, Israel must become a home “that breathes hope and spreads hope.”