Ex-hostage Tal Shoham says he refused to kneel to Hamas captors, wouldn’t show them he was afraid

Released hostage Tal Shoham, who was returned to Israel on February 22, publicly shares details of his 505 days in captivity for the first time, in an interview with Fox News. 

Shoham was taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri, where he and his family had been visiting his wife Adi’s parents over the Simchat Torah holiday.

Adi was also taken hostage, along with their two children Yahel, then 3, and Naveh, 8. The three were released during the weeklong truce in November 2023.

Shoham tells Fox that he didn’t initially know what had become of his wife and children, as he had been taken hostage separately after he stepped outside to surrender, hoping it would spare the lives of his loved ones.

He recalls being driven into Gaza, hauled out of the trunk of the car he was transported in, and told to kneel. At this point, he says, he believed he was about to be killed.

“I said ‘I can’t control whether you kill me or not,’ and I raised by hands — but I refused to kneel’,” he tells Fox, adding that he told his captors: “If you want to kill me, kill me, but you will not execute me like ISIS.”

As he was taken hostage ahead of his family, Shoham says he spent his first 50 days in captivity not knowing whether his wife and children were alive or dead.

“Never in my life have I experienced suffering like this,” he says of that uncertainty. To survive, Shoham says he had to “accept that my family was dead.”

“I sat on the floor and imagined myself at their funeral. I stood in front of a grave — one large for my wife, and two small for my children — and I eulogized each of them,” he recalls. “I sobbed but didn’t let my captors see me cry. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, burying my family in my mind.”

On his 50th day in captivity, however, Shoham says he received a letter from his wife informing him that she and their two children were alive, and being released from captivity.

Knowing that his family was safe was the “most important thing,” Shoham says. “I didn’t need to be a father and husband protecting them anymore. Now, I could focus on my war, the one I knew how to fight, the one for survival.”