"Just wanted to survive"
Hamas hostage: “Was beaten and abused”
The released Hamas hostage Omer Wenkert (23) reports on his deeply traumatic experiences on October 7, 2023 and during his time as a hostage. He was humiliated, beaten and abused. On his birthday, he only wished for one thing: to "survive" this horror.
During the Hamas massacre in the Israeli border region, Omer Wenkert hid in a safe room. Terrorists repeatedly threw hand grenades into the bunker-like room.
The attackers also shot into the room and set fire to it. "I covered myself with corpses to protect myself."
His girlfriend Kim, with whom he had been attending the Nova music festival, was killed. After Wenkert left the bunker to avoid burning to death, he was abducted by gunmen.
Children also beat him up
After being kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, he was driven through densely populated residential areas wearing only his underpants, Wenkert said. "I was surrounded by a crowd of people who attacked me with bricks and iron bars, with anything you can hit them with," he reported.
There were also children among the several hundred civilian attackers. A three-year-old child on his father's shoulders took part in the beatings. They were moments of the worst humiliation.
Humiliation and abuse
While he was being held hostage, the terrorists locked him in a tiny underground room about one meter in diameter. There they dug a hole in which he had to relieve himself. He was repeatedly humiliated and mistreated. For example, he was given rotten food and sprayed with parasite spray. "They sprayed my face, my body, my dishes and my toothbrush."
They sprayed parasite spray on my face, my body, my dishes, my food and my toothbrush.
Omer Wenkert
Beaten with an iron bar on my birthday
"On my birthday, I was beaten on the head with an iron bar," he said. "I said to myself, this is the worst moment of my life." Crying, he then wished himself "to survive this" for his birthday.
After being held hostage for 505 days, Wenkert was released last month as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas - on the same day as the Austro hostage Tal Shoham.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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