Avi Ohana, the father of released hostage Yosef Chaim Ohana, told Channel 12 about reuniting with his son and the secret details he kept hidden during his two years in captivity.

“Now I can say that Yosef was a combat soldier and commander in the Givati Brigade,” the father began. “I didn’t say those words as long as he was in Hamas’ hands—today, I can finally say it.”

“He explained to me that it was hard for him to completely hide it from his captors—in their eyes, everyone is a soldier. He said he managed to hide his actual position from them. He told them he wasn’t a combat soldier but had a low-level job, and that after some time he was thrown out of the army.”

“My son is very brave, with tremendous inner strength. He talks to me as if he just came back from Thailand. He said, ‘Abba, enough, I’m back, it’s over. We’ll never be apart again; there’s no need to dwell on it too much.’ I tell him, ‘What do you mean? You went through hell there,’ and he replies that yes, it’s true—but it’s behind him, and little by little he’ll tell us about it. He leaves me speechless—that’s just who he is.”

Ohana added, “As much as we knew here in Israel that they were suffering in captivity and how hard it was for them there, we don’t know even 5% of what they went through. There were moments of despair, especially recently, when no deal seemed to be working out. There were very dark moments when all we could see was darkness.”

He described the moment he saw Yosef Chaim: “Sometimes it’s hard for me to put feelings into words. After two years of waiting, davening, and fighting in every possible way, suddenly everything narrowed down to that one moment we had longed for. I felt it was Geula. I look at him and can’t believe I’m seeing my son.”

Watch the moving moments below:

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)