Health officials: Hostages facing life-changing, permanent disabilities from untreated injuries

Medical officials warn that the hostages left in Gaza may face life-changing and permanent disabilities, with information from freed captives suggesting that Alon Ohel is in danger of losing his sight.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, there are indications that Ohel, 24, who has been held by terrorists in Gaza since October 7, 2023, has shrapnel in one eye and can only see shadows out of it.

Medical officials who are in close contact with Ohel’s family tell the outlet that testimonies from freed captives indicate that he is danger of losing sight in both eyes due to his untreated injuries and ill-treatment.

Last week, his mother Idit Ohel issued a heartrending plea for his release, saying she had been told that he is being held starving in chains in a Hamas tunnel and has multiple untreated injuries.

“He has shrapnel in his eye, he has shrapnel in his shoulder, he has shrapnel in his arm. Alon was bound in chains, this entire time, and he had almost no food — at most one pita a day, over a very, very, very long time, more than a year,” the anguished mother told Channel 12.