Freed Israeli hostage Ofir Engel, 19, told journalists in Los Angeles on Monday that he wants to share his story with the world, so that people will everywhere will know the true brutality of the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group.
“They murdered people,” Ofir said, recounting his experience on the morning of October 7, 2023.
Ofir was visiting his girlfriend, Yuval, in the community of Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, when Hamas broke through the fence and attacked. He and Yuval heard rocket sirens and hid in her family’s “safe room” for hours as the rocket fire continued, followed by the sounds of shooting and a steady stream of text messages from fellow residents pleading for help.
After he and Yuval hid in the “safe room” for hours, they were discovered by Hamas terrorists, who shot Yuval’s dog before dragging the young couple outside.
Ofir was put into a black car and driven to Gaza; he presumed that Yuval and her family had been killed or kidnapped. (She was not, but her brother and father remain hostages in Gaza today).
Ofir spent 54 days in captivity in Gaza before being released in a hostage deal in November 2023.
“They told us that ‘Israel doesn’t care about you,’ or “Your family doesn’t want you,” he recalled. He was given almost no water and fed little more than a small loaf of pita bread each day, losing eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) during his time as a hostage. His bones and muscles also lost strength, as he was forced to sit almost continuously for 54 days, never seeing sunlight once during that time, as he was kept inside an apartment with several other Israeli hostages.
Once, he said, he was told to write a final letter that would be delivered to his family, giving him the impression that he was to be killed the next day. After the next day ended, he realized that his captors had lied to him — and they did so several times, he said. He had no idea what was going on in the outside world and whether to believe anything they said.
He credits his survival to the help of Yossi Sharabi, 53, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri who was taken hostage and who was later inadvertently killed in an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) airstrike on Hamas terrorists. (Sharabi’s sister-in-law, Lianne, and her two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered at Be’eri; Breitbart News was at the funeral.)
Ofir was released during a week-long truce in November that saw 110 hostages freed in total — many of them escorted by jeering crowds of Hamas supporters on their way to Red Cross vehicles that took them out of Gaza. Hamas has since resisted any hostage deal that does not permanently end the war (allowing it to survive as an organization).
There are still 101 hostages in Gaza, roughly one-third of whom are thought to have been killed or died already.
Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis on October 7, and kidnapped more than 250 people. Ofir was visiting the U.S. with IsraelIs, a non-profit organization run by fellow survivor and reserve IDF soldier, Nimrod Palmach, 40.
Through innovative storytelling, such as a virtual reality documentary called Survive to Tell, IsraelIs hopes to raise awareness of what happened on October 7; to explain why Israel is at war; and above all, to bring the hostages home.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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