Freed hostage Omer Wenkert says he always knew when truce talks failed because captors would take it out on him

Released hostage Omer Wenkert tells Channel 12 that although he was cut off from the outside world throughout his 505 days in captivity in Gaza, he always knew when talks for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas had fallen through or when a senior Hamas operative was killed, because his terrorist captors would take it out on him.

“Every deal that fell through would bring up a lot of frustration, rage and anger,” Wenkert says of his captors. “Not to mention when one of their fathers was killed, or their families, or when their senior officials were assassinated. You feel it. You know exactly what happened.”

He says that in those instances, his captors would beat him, spit on him, and force him to do strenuous physical exercise.

“I was very weak physically,” he says, adding that his captors’ goal was “humiliation.”

During his interview with Channel 12, Wenkert gives a blow-by-blow account of his time in captivity, starting with the night of October 7, 2023, when he drove down to the Nova music festival with his best friend Kim Damti.

Damti was killed in the same bomb shelter Wenkert was taken from, although he didn’t discover her fate until his return to Israel.