Former Hamas hostage Omer Wenkert gave a harrowing account of his captivity in Gaza, revealing systematic abuse, deliberate starvation, and psychological torment during his 14-month imprisonment underground. Speaking at a Bar Association conference, Wenkert described how the already dire conditions worsened dramatically during Israel’s offensive on Rafah in May 2024.

“They intentionally starved me,” Wenkert said, recalling being fed half a pita a day for weeks. “Around the entry to Rafah, [there was] intentional starvation, and intentional abuse. They did things that seriously endangered my life, for fun.”

Among the disturbing incidents he recounted: a captor spraying insect repellent directly into his eyes and onto anything he might touch. On another occasion, Wenkert said, he was beaten with an iron rod. “They tried to drive me crazy — to damage my sense of time,” he added.

Wenkert, who spent much of his captivity in complete isolation, said he was held in a narrow underground tunnel measuring about 90 centimeters (35 inches) wide and roughly 9–10 meters (30 feet) long. A single small mattress and a hole served as his bed and bathroom. For 420 days, he said, he saw his captors only sporadically. Bathing was permitted once every 50 days with a small bottle of water; it wasn’t until after nine and a half months that he was able to wash properly.

He also recalled being moved around 80 days into his captivity to another dark corridor lit only by a small lamp — part of what he described as a deliberate attempt to disorient and destabilize him.

On June 13, 2024, Wenkert said, two fellow hostages — Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal — were brought into the same corridor. The two remain in Hamas captivity, 597 days since they were abducted on October 7, 2023.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)