Hamas captivity survivor Omer Wenkert, who returned to Israel after 505 days in hell, spoke for the first time on Channel 12 News about his kidnapping on October 7 and his days of captivity.
He said that while he was on the stage in Gaza, at the horrific ceremony organized by Hamas on the day of his release, he did not feel humiliated. "For me, that was the victory, I finished the struggle. It did not humiliate me. I fought, I fought, I fought, I fought - and I won. I was smiling from ear to ear. I defeated the captivity."
During that ceremony, he was mainly focused on the car that was parked there. "I went up on stage, and I saw a van in front of me, with an open door. And then I said, 'Is that Guy [Dalal]?', I tell myself that doesn't make sense, it's not Guy, it's not Guy, it's not Guy. And then suddenly I saw him lowering his head with a little smile, saying hello to me. And at that moment I realized it's Guy. My eyes opened. I reacted to it immediately, in complete shock. Despite the very difficult moment for them, that little smile they sent me before I went home, that's the most moving thing that happened to me at this ceremony, it was more than getting into the Red Cross car, and there's one more thing that surpassed it... that little smile that day, the hug of Mom and Dad and the hug of Ran and Maya."
Wenkert recounted the events of October 7. "At six thirty, when the red alert and all the rocket fire started, that's when we started racing towards the exit. We started driving, we immediately reached the Re'im junction, I saw a bomb shelter on the right, and I said to her, 'Come on, stop here.' We stopped, we went in, there were maybe 10 people there at that point. Mom also called, asking, 'Where are you?' 'I'm at the bomb shelter in Re'im, everything is fine, the alarms will stop soon, I'll wait for it to calm down and we'll leave.'"
"Slowly, more and more people arrived at the shelter, and it wasn't until around seven o'clock that we began to realize that there were terrorists, that there was an infiltration of terrorists. [We thought] that a breach or two had opened, and that in the kibbutzim and the towns that are very close to the fence, there was a squad of three or four terrorists and in a moment the IDF would arrive, neutralize them. You don't imagine that anyone would reach Re'im, it's almost five kilometers from the border. Then the shooting started, really, an orchestra of bangs, an orchestra, never-ending, long minutes, dozens, and not a single second that it even calmed down. What I remember is that the last time I saw on the clock was 7:29, and at the exact same second that I read it, someone says, 'Come in, come in, there are terrorists here.' I hear Allahu Akbar, the crack of a grenade inside the shelter and everyone ducks. Explosion," he said.
"You just pray, there's nothing you can do. You say, 'Well... this is probably the end,'" he said, recounting how the terrorists tried to flush them out by setting a fire. "It started to get hot and the smoke went into the shelter, and then someone yelled from the entrance, 'Listen, they're burning us.' Before that, there was hysteria, people were screaming, but as soon as they started burning us, it became quiet, there was silence in the shelter. I'm starting to suffocate a little, lots of smoke, they also threw grenades with certain substances that suffocated us."
A young woman whose name he does not know or if she survived saved his life by repelling a grenade thrown by the terrorists. "I picked myself up, let some blood flow to my legs, because they just weren't working for me, and then I walked through the fire, got out, waited, 'Come on, come on.' Then I saw, I think, seven or eight people standing about 10 meters away from me, and one of them said, 'We're not shooting, come on.' I said, OK, I'm being kidnapped, it's happening, I'm being kidnapped now. I saw them starting to come to me, I peed in my pants."
'They sat me on the floor, tied my legs too, and then my legs to my hands. They literally took my legs, put them on the van and lifted me up and we started driving. Within 10 minutes, a little less, I saw the fence was completely breached, high, I saw myself going inside, and I realized that this was it, they wouldn't save me here anymore. At some point you get a little closer to populated areas, where there are a lot of people, you start to see a lot of people above you, and bricks, and rods, and everything that can be hit, and children on your shoulders, three-year-old children on their father's shoulders beating you," he added.
Until the 53rd day, he was imprisoned with other hostages. "I was alone from the 53rd day until the 250th day to be exact, which is 197th days. I filled my day with things that made me feel good. I thought about certain things regularly. I would talk out loud for two hours a day. I don't know, silence can really drive me crazy, and it was silent underground, very quiet. So I spoke out loud, to myself. Whatever you think, speak. It helped me a lot."
After about 200 days that Omer was alone underground, Tal Shoham, Evyatar David, and Guy Dalal joined him. "They had been exposed to the media for several months, so they had a lot of information to bring me. On June 13th, it was the first time I heard the number 240 kidnapped. The first time I heard how many terrorists entered. What actions were taken there that day. I still don't understand them, the first time I was exposed to them."
It was only when he returned home that Wenkert realized that, contrary to what he thought in captivity, no one had given up on him. "I knew there were demonstrations, and it was clear to me that the people were not giving up on us and that if it had been up to the people, I would have been home a long time ago, but I really didn't imagine that it would reach the proportions it did. Really, it's amazing to me. The decision-makers also took action to bring us home."
He also described the great excitement he felt on the day of his release together with fellow hostages Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen. "They started to get organized, but I hadn't slept a wink. They started to lead us out. After they opened the last door, which is what they call the one on the way to the shaft that takes you out and you start to hear the outside, they stopped us for a moment, we stood there, holding hands with our eyes covered. I think either Omer or Eliya who started singing 'Shir La Ma'alot. (A Song of Ascents).' We found ourselves, and actually the three of us, singing 'Shir La Ma'alot,' loudly, from the heart."