Hamas terrorists repeatedly held a gun to the temple of hostage Yosef-Chaim Ohana, yet he managed to convince them not to pull the trigger. His testimony, published Thursday, reveals chilling details of his captivity.
“I had to plant a logical thought in my captors’ minds - why it wouldn’t benefit them to kill me,” Yosef-Chaim told his family after being released. “Dozens of times, I was just one second away from a bullet to the head.”
His father, Avi, shared the dramatic account with Channel 12 News: “He told his captor, ‘You know what? Wait a second. Before you shoot, what do you gain from this? Nothing. The State of Israel will compensate you for me. I’m your human shield.’ He became fluent in Arabic. After convincing the captor, the terrorist would respond, ‘I accept your reasoning - it makes sense.’”
Yosef-Chaim testified that this life-or-death scenario occurred many times. He also described enduring severe torture, deliberate starvation, and both physical and psychological abuse.
He recounted how he misled his interrogators to hide the fact that he was a commander in the IDF’s Givati Brigade. According to reports, he did this with remarkable cunning. He didn’t deny being a soldier - since, to the captors, all Israelis were considered soldiers - but claimed, “The army didn’t want me. It took a long time to draft me. Eventually, they gave me a low-level role, and later they kicked me out.”
The report also revealed that the terrorists separated childhood friends Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, who were kidnapped together from the Nova music festival and held together for much of their captivity. The captors told them they were being starved for documentation purposes.
Additionally, the terrorists showed them photos of hostages who had died from Israeli fire - particularly Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim, and Samer al-Talalka, who were mistakenly shot in Shuja'iyya at the start of the war - as part of their psychological warfare.