Louis Har, who was rescued from the Gaza Strip together with Fernando Simon Marman in a daring operation by Israel’s Yamam counterterrorism unit after 129 days in Hamas captivity, joined the podcast of journalist Shneor Webber to recount his harrowing experience as a Hamas captive and the personal awakening that followed the kidnapping.
Har detailed the brutal abduction from his home in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7, 2023, moments of crisis, the rescue, and his new life after captivity.
"My views have changed drastically since October 6 and until today. I don't trust any of them [in Gaza]. I know, in some way, they’re all involved. They’re born into hatred. Weapons are put in their hands already as babies. They don’t care about sacrificing their children if it means killing Jews. That’s their way of life,” Har told Webber.
“To achieve dialogue and coexistence, it would take generations of proper education where hatred isn’t taught. That doesn’t exist right now. There’s no one to talk to, even if we wanted to be righteous and good. Before I was abducted, I wanted to live here in peace and coexistence. We don’t hate. We genuinely try to move forward.”
Har described the terrifying events of his abduction on the morning of Simchat Torah. "We realized they were getting closer. We heard the terrorists breaking our windows, storming into the house, shooting everywhere, breaking everything. They fired at the safe room door. Luckily, we were crouched by the corner of the room. In hindsight, that saved our lives. When they breached the safe room door and came in, they kept shooting. Bullets flew over and around us."
"We shouted, ‘Don’t shoot!’ The terrorists barbarically dragged us out of the safe room. There were terrorists everywhere in the house. They demanded the car keys. We spoke to each other in Spanish and decided not to respond or look at them. Then they took us toward the fence. Gabriela and her daughter Mia were put in a white pickup truck and driven out of the gate of the Kibbutz toward Gaza. This was exactly at 11:12 a.m.. They later came back and loaded Fernando, Clara, and me onto the same truck."
“We sat in the pickup truck, surrounded by weapons. Five Hamas terrorists climbed in, each armed with two weapons—one slung around their necks and another in their hands, which they used to fire into the air while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’ Around us, we saw many unarmed Gazan civilians looting everything they could from the homes of the kibbutz. We saw them walking around with computers and other stolen equipment."
Luis also recalled the incredible rescue operation, telling Webber, "At first, I thought the building had been bombed by the IDF. I fell off the mattress—right toward where the terrorists were. Suddenly, I heard voices calling, ‘Luis, come here!’ Someone grabbed my leg and said, ‘The IDF is here. We’re taking you home.’"
"They pushed our heads down and lay on top of us. It was chaos," he continued. "I’ve never seen anything like this, even in movies. I turned to the soldier next to me and said, ‘Are you sure this isn’t a movie?’ I had to pinch myself to see if I was awake—that this wasn’t just another dream of mine."