Ex-captive Omer Shem Tov: IDF pressure, protracted hostage deals make captivity ‘very difficult’

In a video statement screened at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, freed captive Omer Shem Tov tells the government that it is torturing the hostages by failing to bring them all back in one fell swoop and says Hamas stood ready to execute hostages whenever the IDF approached.

“I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re simply breaking them,” he says. “You reach a place where you eat a crumb a day. It’s very, very difficult.”

“I was alone there for 450 days,” says Shem Tov. “You begin to think horrible thoughts.”

“We felt that our soul — they were just killing it, just murdering it,” he adds.

“Everyone wants to vanquish this enemy,” Shem Tov continues. “Every soldier is a hero of Israel, but still, the military pressure makes it very difficult [for the captives].”

“When I was overground, it was awful bombings,” he says. “When I went underground, there were also bombings, earthquakes and such. I heard the tanks pass over me. I heard the soldiers.”

“And they [the captors] were with their guns out… with weapons at hand, just waiting for [the troops] to come. Standing next to me.”

“And I’m sitting there on that mattress praying to God. Just praying to God.”

“That’s the place where you say to yourself, ‘okay, it’s not in my hands, there is nothing for me to do right now,’ so you sit and pray and just hope for the best,” he says.

“It’s time for the Israeli government to take matters into its own hands and decide that in one blow, we bring everyone home,” adds Shem Tov. “Not in trickles, not in 50-day deals — no. It’s time to get everyone home in a single release.”

He thanks the crowd at Hostages Square for its support and promises: “I’ll do everything so that all the hostages are back home as soon as possible.”