Freed Israeli hostage speaks for the first time about his 505 days of surviving Hamas hell

Exclusive: 100 feet underground, the air has little breath and no light, and sharing a space of only six feet by three feet with three feet, recently released hostages Tal Shoham shared his painful survival story with Fox News Digital.

Shoham was forcibly taken from Kibbutz be’eri October 7, 2023. His wife and children, four and eight, were also kidnapped that day, but he didn’t know when he was thrown into the trunk of a car by Hamas terrorists and drove into Gaza. He didn’t even know if his family was still alive. To save them, he surrendered to the terrorists before leaving his family hiding house on fire.

He will spend eight and a half months in an underground tunnel, and then capture five months in five different houses inside Gaza, where his kidnappers tie him up, starve him to death and deprive him of his basic human comfort.

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But he gave himself a mission: he was determined not to lose his humanity. Even at the moment he was worried about his death, he tried to stay focused. He said: “I’m not a victim. Even if it’s over, I’ll end it with my head high, looking very eye-catching. They won’t break me, and I won’t succumb to self-pity. We’re stronger than the other.”

It has been three weeks since he returned home and he is ready to speak. Kibbutz Be’eri is only 9 km, about five miles – From Gazabut that short distance is actually the ocean between the two worlds he describes. “Half an hour of driving, two independent worlds,” he said. “The first one – incredibly surreal, cruel rationality. [on this side of the border]a world of reason, logic, dignity and compassion. ”

He remembers every detail of his imprisonment for 505 days. Taal wants to tell his story to two companions Who stays behindhunger, abuse, and constant death. “Just like someone came out of the womb alive, I came out of the tunnel where I was imprisoned and reborn,” he said. But the men he called “brothers”, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were still locked underground. “I can’t fall asleep at night because they know they’re still there,” he said.

October 7, 2023

Tal came to Kibbutz Be’eri from northern Israel, with his wife and children, and spent the Simchat Torah holiday with his wife’s parents and was at home at the beginning of the terrorist attack. He said everyone entered a safe room and they tried to replace themselves as the sound of gunfire became closer. But the terrorists pried open the windows, and Taal worried that if the family did not surrender, they might throw away the grenades. On the same street, terrorists caught fire on all other houses, burning down people inside.

“I went out and raised my hand,” he said. “A man with a murder took me on the road. I saw about 40 heavy armed terrorists. Some of them were filming me on their phones. I was shocked – there was an entire Hamas terrorist camp inside our Kibbutz, and people I knew were murdered on the ground, they were laughing, not laughing.”

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The terrorists threw him into the trunk of the car and drove him across the border into Gaza. There, a group of people gathered. “The teen with the stick ran towards me and tried to defeat me from all sides.” He took him away from the car, his kidnapper pointed at him at a rifle, he believed, ready to execute him and tried to force him to kneel down. “I said, ‘I can’t control whether you killed me,’ I raised my hand – but I refused to kneel.

He was then described as a street parade as a “March of Victory.” “They shouted, ‘Soldier! Pig! Zionists!’ A mob gathered and the wooden club tried to hit me, but I just waved me.

Quarantine for 34 days

He was first taken to a family home, and he was detained alone for 34 days. Although he was allowed to take regular baths, the imprisonment was serious.

His food was strictly rationed. “In the first three days, I had pita bread. Then, they stopped giving me it.” “The food supply was reduced. Sometimes I would receive three tablespoons of avocado and three dates, or half of the orange from a tree in the yard.”

But the worst torture is unknown whether his family is still alive. “I’m 40 years old. I’ve never experienced such suffering in my life. The idea of ​​being alone and being ruthless – it’s worse than extreme hunger.”

To endure, he made a heartbreaking decision. “I have to accept that my family is dead,” Taal said. “I sat on the floor and imagined myself at their funeral. I stood in front of a grave – one big for my wife and two small for my children – I praised each of them. I thanked them for their time. I told them to go on. I told them to keep going. I cried, but I didn’t make me cry, but I used to cry.

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505 Days in Hell

On the 34th day of imprisonment, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were taken to their homes. Hamas terrorists torture them every day, beat them up, denying that they were eating in front of them. The hostages only allow about 300 calories per day – the weight at release was reduced from 174 pounds to 110 pounds – and were banned from speaking. “We can’t move away from the bed or talk. We whisper.”

Then there is hope. On the 50th day of his imprisonment, Tal obtained a certificate of life from his wife, a letter telling him and the children were kidnapped but released. “I read it, my hands trembled,” he said. “The most important thing happened – my family is safe. I don’t need to be a father and husband to protect them. Now I can focus on war, I know how to fight a war, a war that survives.”

tunnel

By June 2024, Tal, Guy and Evyatar were moved away by an ambulance Hamas used it To transport the hostages carefully to the underground tunnel, there was already another captive Omer Wenkert. There are four mattresses on the floor and a toilet on the floor. A dim light bulb illuminates the space. “It took me a few weeks to stop feeling like the walls are closing to accommodate the deprivation of oxygen,” Taal said.

They give them only 300 ml of water a day – slightly more than 10 ounces. They can drink it or wash their hands with it. Rice is what they have to eat. Several months have passed. They are monitored by cameras and are randomly deprived of food and sleep. The guards are Hamas Tunnel Excavators – digging every day even if war breaks out on it. “Hamas never stopped digging tunnels,” Taal said. “Not a day.”

The conditions were so bad that both he and Iviatal had serious infections. But it will take several months to see them. “My legs turned blue, yellow and purple, and internally bleeding,” he recalled. “They gave us all the blood thinners, worried that we might form clots due to long fixation. Eventually, they realized the problem was malnutrition and gave us a 7-day vitamin supplement. It tasted like a dog food, but it significantly improved our condition.”

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But the abuse continues. A new guard has arrived, even more violent than the previous guards. “He asked some of us to kneel down and beat us up,” he said. “He would scream and say we were dirty Jews, beat us up, and then 10 minutes later, he would smile and bring food.”

Then, it seemed like a miracle. Taal and Omer were appointed Hostage Release Transaction In February. He felt moisture on his face when he was taken outside after being blindfolded after being underground for a few months. “Is it raining?” he asked. “No,” his kidnapper replied, ‘It’s dew. ‘I realized that my name is “dew” in Hebrew.

Before he was handed over to the Red Cross and returned to Israel, there was some humiliation: a procession on the stage at the Rafah Center, where he was forced to repeat Hamas propaganda. But he said he didn’t care – he was going home. When he arrived in Israel he was taken to the base of Rem, where his wife Adi and their two children Nave and Yahel were waiting for him. “It’s a dream come true, but it still feels like a dream,” Taal said. “It took a few days to fully grasp that it’s real. It’s hard to attract. The emotions drown me, like I’m floating above everything.”

There is still tragic news to absorb. Eleven members of the Taal family were kidnapped or murdered on October 7. His mother-in-law Shoshan Haran was taken away with two other relatives, Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam Avigdori, who were later released in the first hostage deal. Two other relatives from the United States who came to celebrate their birthday, Judith Raanan, 59, and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie, were also kidnapped.

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Have happiness. During his imprisonment, four new babies were born in the family. “There are hostages of Jews among us,” he said. “There is dignity. Terrorists bring any horror they want, causing any cruelty and pain, imposing their inhumanity on us. But within our space we retain our inner cleanliness, humanity between each other. This is crucial to immature it.”