‘I choose life,’ ex-hostage Alon Ohel recounts Hamas kidnapping, torture, sexual harassment

Former hostage Alon Ohel describes threats, sexual harassment, starvation and surgeries without anesthesia during months of Hamas captivity.

Content warning: This article discusses sensitive topics, such as violence, sexual harassment, and disturbing images.

Former hostage Alon Ohel recounted his time spent in captivity, including threats, sexual harassment and surgery without anesthesia, while held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip during an interview with N12 on Monday.

Ohel recounted how he was temporarily left alone in a terrorist tunnel after being held with other hostages. During this period, he was confronted by terrorists whose “sole objective was to terrorize”.

“They were playing with food quantities and sexually harassing,” Ohel said.

“You go in the shower and the terrorist comes to shampoo you. He puts shampoo in his hand and starts soaping you in the shower. He touches you,” he said.

Ohel tried to get away from the terrorist who had sexually abused him, telling him he could wash himself, but the terrorist continued.

“He said it was important to him that I shower well, so I wouldn’t get rashes. Fortunately, the sexual abuse didn’t go any further,” Ohel added.

Former hostage Alon Ohel remembers his kidnapping

Ohel told N12 about the moment Hamas terrorists kidnapped him.

“They threw me like a sack of potatoes into the van. I was in shock and wondered if I was dreaming,” Ohel said.

“I saw someone jump out of the pickup and they took it apart. I said to myself, ‘Whatever happens, I choose life,'” he added.

“They started driving, and within seconds we were in Gaza. I was in shock. We went through a gate and boom, Gaza. You’re like ‘where the fuck is the air force? What’s happening?’ » he declared.

“All my hair was full of concrete from the shelter I was hiding in, and I was dripping blood endlessly and had crazy pain in my head, shoulders and eyes. I couldn’t see,” he said.

Ohel recounted how they arrived at a hospital and saw a large crowd of Gazans full of hatred for the hostages.

“You can’t say they’re not involved,” Ohel said, describing the crowd. “Everyone is involved,” he said.

“I shouted to them that I couldn’t see, and they took off my clothes while trying to make sure no one came in,” he said, adding that they were taken to a house next to the hospital and given anesthetic. “I woke up the next day and couldn’t breathe because of the pain,” he recalls.

Ohel said the terrorists sewed up the hostages “in a degrading way,” without anesthetizing them, forbidding them to scream or speak.

“For the first two weeks, we didn’t talk. I was sitting there with people and I had no idea who they were,” Ohel said.

“They take you to a moment in life. I’m 22 years old. What do I know about life? They took me from reality and put me in hell in a second,” he said.

Alon Ohel’s right eye injured

When Ohel closes his left eye, his vision becomes blurry, but when both eyes are open, he is able to see, N12 noted.

However, he says he always knew he would “eventually come back to my mother, no matter what.”

Shortly before his eye surgery, upon his return to Israel, doctors explained the procedure to Ohel, making sure he understood. At one point during the operation he was laughing, then the next moment he was crying, N12 said.

“In Gaza, they took away my rights of movement, freedom and liberty, but not the right to choose to be victorious,” Ohel said.

“You break down all the time, but [fellow hostage] Eli [Sharabi] told me ‘it’s good to break up, but you should never lose hope,'” Ohel remembers.

Ohel remembers running away from Nova

“We fled the Nova music festival as soon as the bombing started,” Ohel recalls.

“We saw the intercepts and said, ‘We’re getting out of here.’ We thought about stopping in a shelter, and I really wanted to keep running after the rockets were over. We stayed in the shelter, but the rockets didn’t stop. Even more, we started hearing Kalashnikovs. ‘Where is the army?’ we asked. You were just waiting to die,” he continued.

Ohel saw Aner Shapira, an IDF soldier, throwing grenades from inside the shelter to the outside. “I told him everything would be okay. He didn’t look me in the eye. He saved us all.”

“After Shapira was killed, Hersh threw a grenade. [Goldberg-Polin] came to throw away. I yelled at him to throw it, but he didn’t get there in time. The grenade exploded just inches from Hersh and blew off his hand. I saw everything and I think it was the grenade that blew out my eye,” Ohel recalled.

The interviewer asked if Ohel felt the IDF knew where they were.

“Absolutely not,” he replied. “I’m afraid of the army that was supposed to protect me. They didn’t know anything.”

Ohel told how he was taken to a terrorist tunnel after 52 days, where he met Eli Sharabi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino and Goldberg-Polin.

However, shortly after, Sarusi, Danino and Goldberg-Polin were taken away, with Ohel saying he was sure they were being taken away to be released. In fact, they were taken to another tunnel, where they were murdered by terrorists in August 2024.

Ohel was left in a tunnel with Eliya Cohen and Sharabi, who Ohel describes as his father during their captivity.

“From the beginning, we connected. There was this click. One time, they threw a bowl with some pasta, and I lost it, hit the wall, broke my hand, and started crying. Eli was there to hug me, it was a father’s hug,” Ohel remembers.

Sharabi told Ohel about her daughters, who were murdered by terrorists during the massacre, and broke down in tears. They promised each other that they would survive for the sake of their family members waiting for them.

“Anyone who was not there will not be able to understand our captivity. In your life you have not experienced starvation, you have not been chained for a year and a half, chained like a monkey and eaten like a dog. You are not a human being, you are an animal,” he said.

“We ate pita and four spoons of peas a day. There was a time when we only ate dried dates. And you know they have food. You say to yourself, ‘eventually you get used to hunger,’ but no. It’s a pain in the whole body, all the time. You look like a skeleton. You look at yourself and you see a corpse, and it makes them feel good in their heart,” Ohel said, describing how he was trying to stay mentally strong.

The Israeli army bombed the tunnel they were in and a missile blew up the mosque and school where the tunnel shafts exited, Ohel said.

The hostages were sure that they would be rescued and that IDF soldiers were entering the tunnels. “We went out and ran among the ruins,” he said. “We heard machine guns and we kept running until we reached another tunnel that had nothing.”

Ohel recalled how a high-ranking terrorist explained to them how the other hostages held with Ohel were being released. They took him away from Sharabi and he refused to leave. He and Sharabi were shaking, he recalled.

“I told Eli, ‘Wow, I’m happy for you.’ He said everything will be fine.”

Ohel recounted how, after eight months in captivity, he was transferred to the southern Gaza Strip.

“Suddenly we stopped,” he said. “They took me out of the vehicle and we started wandering around Gaza. In retrospect, I understood that they transferred me to put pressure on Israel.”

After being moved, Ohel was reunited with his compatriot Guy Gilboa-Dalal. The two men served together in the Navy and immediately recognized each other, Ohel said.

The two men were taken into a tunnel and terrorists ordered them to write a letter to their families.

Izzadin al-Haddad, then commander of the Hamas Brigade in Gaza, who has since been promoted to head of the so-called military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, entered the tunnel and told Ohel and Gilboa-Dalal that they were being liberated.

“From there, everything happened very quickly. A woman from the Red Cross took me and apologized. She was very embarrassed because the Red Cross did nothing. It’s a shameful organization, no different from the UN,” he said.

From the window of the Red Cross vehicle, he saw IDF soldiers. He recalled how he noticed they were reservists with families and children.

Ohel noted that he didn’t break down after being reunited with his family. What was important to him was to give them the feeling that he was coming back sane, healthy and whole, but then he allowed himself to show his emotions.

When he learned that Sharabi had lost his entire family, he collapsed, he recalls.

“For two years I was dead. I prayed for someone to save me, but I discovered that I am strong, that I can do anything, I am not a victim, I am not looking for self-pity. I experienced what I experienced, I accept it and I grow, continuing to learn and develop. I will conquer the world,” concluded Ohel.