Latest news with #captivity
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Emily Damari opens up about abuse experience in captivity, suicide pact with fellow hostage
Emily Damari told the Daily Mail about her suicide pact with Romi Gonen, and the abuses she experienced in Hamas captivity. Former hostage Emily Damari revealed in a Friday interview with the Daily Mail that one of her captors treated her so cruelly that she considered suicide. 'They were the worst people – the worst family,' she said. 'They would make fun of us and laugh at us. They would tell us: 'Nobody cares about you.' They would hide food from us and tell us we were never leaving Gaza.' She explained that she had made a suicide pact with Romi Gonen, with whom she was held. The pair had decided to either escape or end their lives to put a stop to the cruelty. To avoid that fate, Damari, who also has British citizenship, recounted how she approached the least cruel guard and warned that if the pair weren't moved, 'you are going to have two dead hostages.' Although the guard – a commander in the terror group – promised to move them, they remained in the family's control for months. Despite the hopeless situation, Damari said she had a premonition they would soon be released and told Gonen to style her eyebrows and shave her legs in preparation for their return to freedom. From the moment she was taken on October 7 From the moment that Damari was taken on October 7, she recounted how she would rather die than be kidnapped and made a hostage. When terrorists abducted her from her home, along with her friend Gali Berman, a terrorist shot off several of her fingers while killing her dog Choocha. When the terrorist told her he would take her to the hospital, Damari recounted how she 'understood this was not going to be an Israeli hospital' and told him, 'No, no, no, shoot me!' I didn't want to be kidnapped, I would have preferred to die.' 'I took his gun, put it to my head, and said: 'Shoot me! Shoot me!'' she told the Daily Mail, explaining she only went quietly once the terrorist placed a gun to her friend's head. AFTER BEING transported to Gaza and separated from Berman, she was taken to Shifa Hospital and told by terrorists she was more valuable to them alive than dead. A doctor introduced himself as 'Dr. Hamas,' amputated her damaged fingers under general anesthesia, and stitched the nerves in her hand together, causing her significant pain. After the amputation, she explained she was taken to the home of a terrorist and housed with Gali's brother Ziv, the terrorist's wife, and their six children. One of the children, only 14 years old, carried a gun, she recounted. During her stay, she was allowed only one shower and received no change of clothes. Ziv Berman and Damari were later moved after the house was hit in an airstrike. 'I thought I was in heaven,' she said. 'I saw one big fireball, and then I didn't see anything anymore. Everywhere was dust.' After 40 days with Berman, the two were separated, and she was transported while disguised in traditional clothes. She was taken into a 'city' of tunnels to a small cage containing five female hostages, including an eight-year-old girl. 'It was stinky, hot, humid, and damp. You don't get used to it,' Damari said, describing how the walls were covered in cockroaches. 'They let you go to the bathroom once or twice a day – you have a hole in the ground. It stinks… There is no running water, just a gallon jug with water in it.' 'We were totally surrounded by terrorists – five girls. They have weapons. They are stronger than you. They can do whatever they like, whenever they like,' Damari said, explaining that she had to hide her sexuality of preferring women. 'I hid that about myself, because I knew it was worse than them knowing I was Jewish or Israeli – they would kill me.' She described how the terrorists would probe her as to why she wasn't married, and she would explain away the questions by saying she had three protective brothers. Throughout her time in captivity, Damari probed guards back and on one occasion asked a terrorist what he would do if he discovered his brother was gay. She said the guard responded that he would 'kill him' because 'he's sick.' AFTER THREE months in the tunnels, Damari said that she was moved and would stay in 30 different locations. Terrorists would use dash cams as makeshift security cameras to monitor them and leave them in explosive-laden homes so they would be killed if the IDF attempted to rescue them. While Damari was relocated repeatedly, she remained with Gonen, and the duo developed a close bond. Damari and Gonen, who was shot in the arm, would support each other with tasks made difficult by their respective wounds. One guard nicknamed Damari 'John Cena,' after the famous actor and WWE wrestler, because she would complete between 400 and 600 sit-ups every morning despite the harsh conditions. 'The terrorists would call me 'Sajaya', which means you are very confident, very strong,' she recalled. 'I did everything just to survive. If they sat with me now and I could kill them – of course, I would be happy to do it.' At one point, she convinced a guard to give her his gun. While she discussed with her fellow captives killing the terrorist, she knew that would seal their deaths. She said that while she didn't care about the impact it might have on her, she did not want to endanger the others. While Damari is now free, she said her 'greatest hope is that Gali and Ziv will have that experience too.' 'They are probably in a cage,' she told the Daily Mail. 'They are abusing them. There isn't a lot of water. It is probably unimaginably hot for them.'
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Daily Mail
My hell in the Gaza tunnels: British hostage Emily Damari tells of being held in a cage like an animal and how a surgeon called 'Dr Hamas' left her in constant pain - and demands: Now let my friends go
For almost four months of her 471 days in captivity, Emily Damari was incarcerated in the Hamas terror tunnels under Gaza, where the stench of human waste permeated the fetid wet air and the floor crawled with cockroaches. Throughout it all she was in constant, searing pain after gunmen shot off two of her fingers the day she was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, while the remains of another bullet was lodged in her right leg. But there was something even worse than the hunger, the stench, the pain and the lice that infested their clothes and hair: the cages. Describing for the first time the inhumane practice in which they were treated like animals, Emily says: 'Sometimes there would be up to six of us at a time, squeezed in a tiny cage just two metres by two metres.' The 29-year-old was finally freed alongside 32 fellow hostages in a ceasefire deal in January and propelled to international fame after an image of her posing defiantly with her wounded hand went viral – a symbol of freedom and courage. Ever since she has tried to rebuild her life as she undergoes multiple complex surgeries on her fingers and to remove the bullet from her leg. But today, the only Israeli hostage with dual British citizenship bravely takes the Daily Mail back to her harrowing time in Gaza in a world exclusive newspaper interview from her new home near Tel Aviv, Israel. The last place Emily wants to return to is the tunnels. But she reveals the full horrors of what she suffered there for one reason: while she got out, there are others who still remain. These include her best friends, twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, with whom she was snatched from their kibbutz, before being separated in the early days of captivity. 'They are probably in a cage,' Emily tells me. 'They are abusing them. There isn't a lot of water. It is probably unimaginably hot for them.' Visibly angry, she adds: 'Come on already! What is taking so long?' Some 50 hostages remain, of whom 20 are confirmed to be alive, including the twins, and Donald Trump, who helped secure Emily's release in January, said this week he should secure the release of ten more 'very shortly'. But tonight Mr Trump has said Hamas don't want a deal and it appeared the latest Gaza ceasefire talks are on the verge of breaking down, with Washington accusing Hamas of not 'acting in good faith'. Emily is urging the US President and her own Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu 'to do everything in your power to bring my Gali and Zivi home'. She says: 'You saved my life, now you must do the same for the last 50 hostages. Only then can we start to heal.' That Emily survived at all is in large part to her astonishing strength of character that meant she refused to be cowed in the face of the worst of humanity. Today she reveals she grabbed the barrel of a Hamas terrorist's gun and pointed it at her own face, begging him to kill her rather than be taken hostage. And how, on another occasion, she persuaded a guard to give her his weapon and debated killing her captors – knowing she too would be killed. She also talks about having to hide the fact she is gay from her captors who said they would kill their own family members if they found out they were homosexual. Emily credits her mother's British stoicism, manners, and sense of humour with making her 'resilient'. Her Surrey born mother, Mandy, 64, was in southern Israel on a gap year in her 20s, when she met and fell in love with charismatic Yemeni-Israeli Avihay, now 66, from whom Emily says she has inherited her energy. Emily enjoyed a '95 per cent perfect' childhood at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, though endured '5 per cent hell' from rockets and threats from neighbouring Gaza. Mandy taught at the nursery and Avihay coached football, with her three older siblings Sean, 32, Tom, 35, and Ben, 38. Proud of her Anglo roots, and football mad, she supports both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Tottenham Hotspur. Then there were her 'other' brothers – Gali and Ziv. Life on the kibbutz meant they were rarely apart from the very first day they met at kindergarten. 'It was always us together,' she said. 'I love them both, and I miss them.' Indeed, on October 6, 2023, Emily threw one of the barbecues she loved to host for her friends, attended by the twins. Just hours later, at 6.30am, the rockets started and it soon became apparent terrorists were inside the kibbutz. Emily, at home alone, was terrified. 'I sent Gali a message: 'I'm not ok.' I couldn't move because my body was just ice. I was shaking – it was insane.' Such is their friendship Gali risked his life to sprint to be with her. Three hours later they heard Arabic voices approaching. Then, a window smashed. Within seconds about ten terrorists stormed into her room, where Emily and Gali were lying arm-in-arm face down on the bed praying, with Choocha her cockapoo between them. 'I hugged Gali and both of our faces were on the pillow,' Emily said. 'Then they shot my left hand.' Seconds later they shot Choocha dead, the same bullet smacking into the back of her right leg. The terrorists dragged them outside and made them sit on a sofa while they tried to find her car to take them into Gaza. 'I just sat there and I said, 'Oh my God, what are they doing to us?'' She saw Ziv marched out of his apartment blindfolded; her peaceful kibbutz had 'become hell'. 'There was fire all around, doors open, everyone dead,' she said. 'We saw RPGs. We saw submachine guns. They were so happy in what they were doing.' One of the terrorists turned to Emily, who was bleeding heavily and in shock, and said he was going to take her to hospital. 'I understood this was not going to be an Israeli hospital so I told them, 'No, no, no, shoot me!' I didn't want to be kidnapped, I would prefer to die. I took his gun, put it to my head and said: 'Shoot me! Shoot me!' 'Then someone put his gun on Gali's head, so I immediately said, 'No, no, don't kill him.'' On arrival in Gaza, Gali was separated from them. She has not seen him since. While Emily and Ziv were kept together, within minutes Emily was driven to Al-Shifa Hospital after the terrorists informed her she was worth more to them alive than dead. She was in a hospital room surrounded by 15 fanatics armed with Kalashnikovs when a tall bespectacled doctor entered and, with a smirk, addressed Emily: 'Hi, I'm Dr Hamas.' Dr Hamas amputated her damaged fingers under general anaesthetic then stitched the nerves in her hand together. Whether he did so intentionally, or through incompetence, she will never know. But it left her in excruciating pain. Returned to Ziv and other hostages in the house of a Hamas member, his wife and their six children – including a 14-year-old who carried a gun – the weeks that followed were hellish. Emily says she only had the clothes she'd been kidnapped in and was allowed to shower just once, leaving her caked in grime. Their stay in this house was terminated when it was hit by a bomb and flattened – 'I thought I was in heaven. I saw one big fireball, and then I didn't see anything any more. Everywhere was dust.' But at least she and Ziv were still together. Then, after 40 days in captivity, a commander told her she was going home, but that the boys and girls were being separated. It was the last time she saw Ziv: 'I gave him a hug and said, 'Zivi, keep safe', and then they took him.' Ordered to cover her clothes with traditional dress while she was moved, she heard the sounds of Israeli planes and drones above and it quickly became clear the war was not over – she was being driven to a tunnel entrance, not being released. Of the network built by Hamas that stretches for hundreds of miles she recalls her first impression: 'It is like a city. I walked in and said: 'Oh my God, it's huge!'' Herded down the narrow passages, she had to feel her way in the half-light of her guards' headtorches, until they came to a clearing. There, illuminated by the dim glow of battery-powered lanterns, she saw something utterly chilling. 'There was one cage, a very small cage,' she recalls, 'and there were five girls sat in the cage.' Then, as she approached the bars, a familiar voice shouted: 'Two fingers?' Among the group, which included an eight-year-old, was 24-year-old Romi Gonen, shot in the right arm as she was kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7 and whom Emily had met briefly while they were both being treated in hospital. Emily's time underground has blurred into one single nightmarish memory, punctuated by periods incarerated in cages, but she says: 'It was stinky, hot, humid, damp. You don't get used to it.' The details are haunting. She recalls the floor of the cages was sandy, wet and crawling with cockroaches. Everything, in fact, was wet from the humidity underground. 'They let you go to the bathroom once or twice a day – you have a hole in the ground. It stinks. 'There is no running water, just a gallon jug with water in it.' At times, there would be six of them crammed into a crate, making it impossible to lie down, and they could barely see. 'The battery lamps give you light, but it's a very low light,' Emily recalls. 'It makes your eyes water.' All the time, they were under the gaze of at least three armed terrorists. Worse than the guards, though, was the silence. 'It makes you deaf, Emily says. 'It murders the ears… You go crazy in it.' Initially, Emily was among a group of 11 women and girls and a week later the first November ceasefire was agreed. Six of the group were freed. Unfortunately, the ceasefire ended before any more could be released. Asked how she got through, Emily said they had no choice but to accept it: 'We just continued to survive. 'We were totally surrounded by terrorists. Five girls. They have weapons. They are stronger than you. They can do whatever they like, whenever they like.' For Emily there was the fear that her sexuality would be uncovered: 'I hid that about myself because I knew it was worse than them knowing I was Jewish or Israeli – they would kill me.' She had to fend off advances from guards, enquiring why she wasn't married. 'I told them I have three brothers, they don't allow me to go out on dates with guys – I need to wait for the one,' she joked. But she was under no false impressions over what would happen if they discovered she was gay. On one occasion she asked a guard what he would do if he discovered his brother who he loved was gay. 'He said, 'Well, I would kill him.' I said, 'Ok, but it's your brother?' He said, 'No, he's sick.'' After around three months without seeing daylight, their routine changed and they were switched between the tunnels and houses, staying in almost 30 different locations and moving without warning lest the IDF discover their position. Car dash cams were used as improvised security cameras to monitor them, and later the terrorists lined the homes with explosives that could be activated in case a hostage rescue was attempted. Emily stayed with dozens of different male, female and child hostages, but the one constant for nearly all her time in captivity was Romi. She has spoken powerfully of the 'twin-like' bond they formed, as Emily's left fingers had been shot while Romi's right arm did not work. They used their working limbs in synchronicity to wash their clothes, eat, and dress one another. Both woman had to tend to their agonising wounds which festered in the tunnels. Emily tried to stay sane with a routine she started in the first days with Ziv. 'I would do sit ups every morning,' she said. 'The most sit ups I did was 600. But most days it was 400, 450.' It caught the attention of her guards, who nicknamed her John Cena, after the Hollywood actor and wrestler, for her physique. 'The terrorists would call me Sajaya, it means you are very confident, very strong,' she recalls. 'I did everything just to survive. If they sat with me now and I could kill them – of course, I would be happy to do it.' Emily even once managed to convince a tunnel guard to give her his gun 'to play with'. 'Then he walked away,' she said. 'I said to the girls, maybe I should kill him? I started getting really excited about the idea. 'But then the girls said, 'yeah, but then what? Then we're all going to die.' ' While she didn't care about her own safety, she backed down. But while Emily outwardly appeared strong, inside she was in turmoil, not only over the fate of the twins but her mother, brothers, and father who had been diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's 12 years ago. She feared they had been killed on October 7. 'I didn't want to talk about my family because it would break me,' she says. 'But you start thinking about all the people, especially at night when you are trying to fall asleep.' At night, though, she often had agonisingly vivid dreams of returning home. 'Then I woke up, and I was still in Gaza,' she said. 'It was s**t. But what can you do?' When they were being held above ground, she occasionally caught glimpses of television and often saw images of Romi's family protesting – but never any of her own. Then, one morning, Romi said there was a woman holding a picture of Emily in the Israeli parliament on television. 'I didn't recognise her for a second and then I was like…. Mum!' Emily said. 'Then I started to cry. I was shaking. It was the opposite of an anxiety attack. It was this relief, my mother is alive. Everyone was crying. ' But with no sign of any chance of release it was a rare high point. In particular, there was one family in whose house they were billeted for a period who pushed Emily to the brink of suicide. 'They were the worst people,' she said. 'The worst family. They would make fun of us and laugh at us. They would tell us: 'Nobody cares about you.' They would hide food from us and tell us we were never leaving Gaza.' When, after 13 months in captivity, she was returned to them, Emily could take no more. 'I said I'm not staying here. Either I'm going to escape, or I'm going to kill myself.' She and Romi made a suicide pact. Typically strong-willed, Emily grabbed the least cruel guard and demanded he bring his commander, telling him: 'If you don't do something and get us out of here, you are going to have two dead hostages.' The commander assured her she would be moved but two months passed and nothing happened. But at the beginning of January this year Emily had a premonition they would be released. She remembers adamantly saying to her fellow hostages: 'I'm telling you. We are going to get out.' She even shaved her legs and made Romi do her eyebrows in preparation. On January 19, Emily was proved right. She was not quite done with bossing her guards around, however. When they handed her a red top to wear for the release ceremony, Emily refused to wear the colour of her Israeli football team's rivals. 'Tell your commander, Emily Damari doesn't wear red,' she insisted. They agreed to give her a green top instead. Images from the handovers shocked the world, with released hostages stumbling out in the sunlight surrounded by a baying mob of Hamas supporters. Pictures of Emily staring into the faces of Hamas and smiling in defiance as she was released were a defining image of the day. She was handed over to the IDF in Israel who confirmed all three of her brothers and her parents were alive, and tried to get her to talk to psychologists and therapists on standby. 'I said, 'fine, fine, but where's my mum?'' Emily recalls. 'They said this is your room, and I said 'great, whatever, where is my mum?' 'And then she came! I said: 'Mum, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' ' Incredible footage shows the moment they embraced.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Sir Terry Waite recalls how BBC news was 'tapped on cell wall'
Former Beirut hostage Sir Terry Waite has been recalling how news from the BBC World Service was tapped out in code on a wall for him by a fellow Terry, 86, says the World Service broadcasts from the transmitter station in Daventry, Northamptonshire, gave him hope while he was chained to a wall in darkness day and Terry, who now lives near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was released in 1991 after 1,763 days in captivity in week sees the centenary of the opening of the station at Daventry. As the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy, Sir Terry went to Lebanon in 1987 to try to secure the release of hostages, but ended up in captivity himself. He told BBC Radio Northampton's Annabel Amos that the conditions he was kept in were very basic."I was kept in a dark room, sometimes below ground, sometimes above ground, in a bombed-out building," he said."I slept on the floor, I was in the dark most of the time, I was blindfolded and chained by the hands and feet to a wall for 23 hours and 50 minutes a day.""Looking back, I wonder how I survived it." With no access to books, newspapers, television or radio, Sir Terry was completely isolated from the outside then he discovered there were other hostages in the next cell, and he decided to try to communicate with them without the guards finding said: "I began to tap on the wall: one for A, two for B."It's then you regret your name is Terry Waite because it's a long way down the alphabet!"It took about two years of laboriously tapping out his name before someone responded. The hostages nextdoor turned out to be the British journalist John McCarthy and the Irish writer Brian Keenan, who had heard Sir Terry's tapping but had been unable to respond until one of them was chained next to the wall."They had a small radio," said Sir Terry, "and they were able to get the World Service. "They used to communicate with me by tapping on the wall and telling me the latest news."Just before the end of his captivity, Sir Terry became ill and was given a small first time he turned it on, he heard a broadcast of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius: "That was the first music I'd heard for years, and I remember how much it brought me some comfort and some harmony into my life." After his release, Sir Terry visited Daventry to thank the BBC team for transmitting the radio programmes that became his said the Daventry station was "fulfilling a valuable function around the world - long may it continue".The centenary of the opening of the Daventry transmitting station takes place on Sunday. The World Service is now broadcast from Woofferton in Shropshire. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'We can save the next family from the worst': Former hostages rally on horseback at Nir Oz
Some freed hostages, as well as family members of captives, attended a horse rally at Kibbutz Nir Oz to honor those still in Gaza. Kibbutz Nir Oz held an equestrian rally on Friday in honor of the hostages still in Gaza, as well as for Nir Oz resident Eliyahu Margalit, known as "Churchill," who was killed at his home on October 7. His body remains in Gaza. Margalit was a cow breeder and was known to love horses. Nili Margalit, his daughter, was released in the November 2023 deal, just a day before her father was pronounced dead. 'Dad, the thought that you are a hostage hurts me a thousand times more than my own captivity,' Nili said, according to a press release from the kibbutz.'You are a man of freedom: no one could control you. You are a man of fields and wide spaces, and that's also why you fell in love with the Western Negev, an open, flat area full of space and freedom, a lot of freedom. 'No one should be in captivity. Not children, not women, not the elderly, not men, not civilians, not soldiers, not the living, not the dead. No one should be in captivity,' she said, adding that she had not had full closure with her father's passing yet. When will they come home? 'Dad, it's already been 651 days that I've been waiting for the moment when I can say goodbye to you on your final journey to the land of Nir Oz. 651 days that my thoughts give me no rest. And I keep asking, when, when, when will that day come?' Former hostage Gadi Moses also participated in the rally. Former hostage Gadi Moses, 81, attends the rally at Kibbutz Nir Oz in memory of Eliyahu Margalit and calling for the return of the remaining hostages (Credit: Nir Oz Spokesperson). 'This tough, hard, and cold government that manages our lives doesn't understand what it means for parents, siblings, and families waiting for their loved ones. It sets priorities that are unacceptable. At least from my perspective – illogical and emotionless,' Moses said. 'They [the government] have no patience until they finish with Iran, until they finish with the draft-dodging laws, finish with the judicial reform, finish everything, and then maybe they will think about a few more hostages who are either alive or have already died. So, we are all in a desperate call to those who decide – enough already!' Yechiel Yehoud, father of former hostage Arbel Yehuod, added that his daughter "now sits in front of the decision-makers at the political and military levels, showing them what it means to be a captive in Gaza. "The terror they experience when the war rages around them, as the army approaches and the terrorists point a rifle at their heads." He ended with an impassioned plea to end the war in Gaza and bring all of the remaining hostages home. "This war, the longest of Israel's wars, can and should be ended. We can save the next family from the worst, and protect the dreams of young people. "We can return all the hostages. We can, we must, and it's required.' The rally comes as Israel reportedly made significant strides to achieve a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas. US President Donald Trump noted that he hoped to have a deal to bring back 10 living hostages "finished quickly." Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Yahoo
‘That people are still there haunts me in the night': Former Hamas hostage says ordeal won't truly end until everyone is home
The sight of Or Levy emerging in February from Hamas captivity shocked the world. The 34-year-old's pale, emaciated frame stood as a testament to the brutal conditions he endured during the 491 days he was held hostage – almost all of which he spent underground, shackled and hungry. 'It's hard to understand how difficult it is to live on one pita a day for 491 days … no human should live like that,' Levy said in an interview with CNN this week. 'And for the people that are still there, I know those days were even worse than what I've been through – and it's scary.' Levy has now been home for five months. That time, he says, has been a rollercoaster of emotions, beginning the day he was released, which he describes as both the best and hardest of his life. He was reunited with his son, Almog, who was just two years old when his father was kidnapped. But he also learned that his wife, Einav, had been killed in the attacks of October 7, 2023 – and had to begin the process of grieving her. It was the first question Levy asked the Israeli military representative who greeted him as he stepped out of captivity. 'I asked her about my wife. I told her that I think I know, but I'm not 100% certain, and that I want to know,' Levy said. 'And then she told me.' For 491 days, Levy suspected that his wife may have been killed in Hamas' attack on the bomb shelter from which he was kidnapped, but still held out hope that she may have survived. Most of all, he said he wasn't prepared to know the truth and did not ask his captors whether she had survived. Instead, Levy said he stayed alive by focusing on his son – and a mantra that he learned from Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage who would be executed months later by Hamas. Levy and Goldberg-Polin were taken hostage from the same bomb shelter near the Nova music festival. Seven weeks later, they were reunited in Hamas's tunnels and spent three days in captivity together. 'I remember Hersh telling me this sentence … 'He who has a 'why' can bear any 'how','' Levy recalled, a quote often attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche which the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl referenced in a book about surviving the Holocaust. Almog was Levy's 'why.' On difficult days, when Levy said he thought about dying, he would touch his left arm and think about the mantra – and his son. One of those days was his son's birthday last year. With tears in his eyes, Levy recalled spending most of the day crying, quietly singing 'Happy Birthday' to his son, telling the other hostages about him and promising that he would do whatever it took to spend Almog's next birthday together. Levy was able to keep that promise two weeks ago, celebrating Almog's fourth birthday at their home in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. Levy also got the mantra that helped him survive captivity tattooed on his arm – on the same spot he envisioned it while in captivity. Or's reunion with his son was nerve-wracking and emotional. He feared that his son might not recognize him. But the moment they embraced all those fears washed away. 'I remember seeing him, hugging him, hearing his voice … crazy,' Levy said. Levy has now dedicated himself to being Almog's father, full-time. Increasingly, that has meant answering his son's questions about the 'far place' where he has told his son he was being held and about his mother. 'The story that we told – that he knows – is that a big bomb happened and that unfortunately, mom is dead and I was taken to a far place, and people were trying to get me home,' Levy said. 'So he asks – he asks about his mom, about what happened to her, about who caused it? And he asked me about my wounds. He asked me again, why didn't I take him with me to this far place?' Levy said he tells his son that his mom didn't want to leave him, that she loved him from the bottom of her heart. And he tells him stories about her and shows him pictures of her, every day. As difficult as it is for Levy, who is still grieving his wife's death, he says he has promised himself that they won't stop speaking about her. 'Even when it's hard,' Levy said, 'It's harder for him (to not remember his mother).' Despite his gratitude for every day he gets with his son, Levy's ordeal won't truly be over until all the hostages are home. 'The fact that people are still there haunts me in the night,' Levy said. Watching the stop-and-start progress of ceasefire negotiations has been 'very difficult,' he said – especially knowing that Hamas tends to treat the hostages worse at the times when those negotiations stall or backslide. He recalled Hamas tightening the shackles around his legs in moments when ceasefire talks sputtered. 'Very easily, I could have been still there,' he added. He could have been in Alon Ohel's place – the 24-year-old hostage with dreams of studying music, with whom Levy spent most of his captivity and who remains in Gaza. 'I think that nothing is worth more than getting those people home,' Levy said. 'I know that we need to push on to get a deal that gets everyone home and finish everything. Finish everything.'
