"If you want to kill me, kill me, but you will not execute me like ISIS," were reportedly the words former hostage Tal Shoham told Hamas terrorists on October 7, according to his interview with Fox News released on Saturday. This marks his first interview since his return from Gaza last month.
"I raised my hands, but I refused to kneel," he added, relaying the moment when one of his captors took him from his car and pointed a rifle at him. "I am not a victim. Even if this ends, I will end it with my head high, looking death in the eyes. They won’t break me, and I will not surrender to self-pity. We are stronger than the other side."
Shoham then described Palestinians filming him on their phones as he was being abducted by dozens of armed terrorists.
When he arrived in Gaza, he was taken to a home of a family, where he spent the first month of his captivity. There, he was tortured and fed very limited amounts of food, but described the worst torment being the uncertainty as to whether his family was alive or not. He added that his isolation was worse than the hunger.
Only after 34 days, hostages Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal - who are still in captivity - were brought to the same house. He told Fox News that David and Gilboa-Dalal are his "brothers," adding that he has difficulty sleeping at night while knowing their horrific condition.
He also said that speaking was prohibited in captivity.
In June of last year, Shoham and the two others were moved to an underground tunnel in an ambulance that Hamas used to transport hostages, he told Fox News. There, the three met with Omer Wenkert, who was eventually released the same day as Shoham. In the tunnel there was a new guard who was extremely violent, Shoham described, saying "He made some of us kneel like dogs and beat us. He would come in screaming that we were filthy Jews, hit us, and then 10 minutes later, he would smile and bring food."
Details of Shoham's captivity
Shoham spent 505 days in captivity in the Gaza Strip before being finally released on February 22, 2025. He has Austrian and Italian citizenship. He was abducted with eight other members of his extended family, including his wife and children who were released in the first hostage deal in November 2023. He was released alongside Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, Hisham Al-Sayed - with the last two having been hostages held by the terrorist organization for years.
On the day that Shoham was released, Hamas forced David and Gilboa-Dalal to watch as the other hostages were released, posting this in a video on their Telegram channel. The video, which the two hostages' families have approved for distribution, showed the the two in the back of a car very close to the stage where the release ceremony for Shem Tov, Wenkert, and Cohen.
Shoham was released in Rafah alongside Mengistu, and he was forced to make a speech on Hamas's makeshift stage before being handed to the Red Cross. He was discharged from Rabin Medical Center five days after his release. He lost about 64 pounds during his captivity.
Around a week later, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for two hours, where he also described his time in captivity to the Israeli leader, and, like in the Fox News interview, spoke in particular of the plight of hostages David and Gilboa-Dalal.