Released hostage Tal Shoham says fellow captives discussed suicide

Recently released hostage Tal Shoham recalls how Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David — hostages with whom he was held in captivity and who are still held in Gaza — openly discussed taking their own lives because of the inhumane conditions under which they have been held.

“One of the toughest things that I heard from them — they told me more than once, ‘Why stay alive?'” Shoham tells CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

“Why not just take their own life with their own hands and finish it… to get released from this.”

Shoham is interviewed alongside the parents of Gilboa-Dalal and David.

“They will do it together if they decide to do it,” says David’s mother Galia.

Shoham, 40, shares how he turned into a father-like figure to the 23-year-old Gilboa-Dalal and David. “They are not children, but from time to time, I felt like a father,” Shoham recalls before choking up.

“They are children,” Gilboa-Dalal’s father Ilan chimes in.

“I really, really fear that they are now alone,” says Shoham.

Gilboa-Dalal and David’s Hamas captors drove them to a hostage release ceremony last month and forced the pair to watch.

“Then they moved them back to the tunnels [to] devastate them,” Gilboa-Dalal’s father says.

CBS’s Lesley Stahl says she doesn’t know how anyone could watch the video that Hamas produced from that day, but David’s mother Galia responds, “It was a sign of life.”

Shoham shares details of his captivity with Gilboa-Dalal and David to their parents during the joint interview.

“It’s important for us to know exactly what’s going on with our children,” says Gilboa-Dalal’s father.

Shoham shares how Gilboa-Dalal cried for five or six days straight after being taken captive. He recalls how they lived in very narrow tunnels and were only given minute amounts of pita, rice and water.

“Sometimes the water tastes like blood, sometimes like iron. Sometimes it was so salty that you could not drink it, but you don’t have anything else,” he says.

One of their captors told them that they were being given the bare minimum amount of food to be able to survive for years. “You won’t die, but you will have the worst time,” Shoham recalls being told.

In order to get additional food, Shoham says he and the other hostages would give back rubs to their captors every day.

“It’s worse than how they treat animals,” Gilboa-Dalal’s father says.

Asked how she can listen to such difficult details, David’s mother responds, “I want everyone to listen because this is the reality. Maybe someone will hear it, and it will save our sons.”