Herzog meets with freed Hamas hostage Omer Wenkert

(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Tuesday with Omer Wenkert, a freed hostage who was released in February after being held by Hamas in Gaza for over a year.

Wenkert was abducted during the massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, from a bomb shelter in Kibbutz Re’im, where he had sought refuge after escaping the attack on the Nova music festival.

During the meeting, the president spoke with Wenkert and his parents, Niva and Shai, about his experience in captivity, the challenges of rehabilitation, and the urgent need to bring home the remaining hostages.

“I am truly overjoyed—on behalf of an entire nation—to see you here. I know the hell you went through. To think that during all that time you knew nothing—no one spoke to you, you didn’t see any television, you weren’t updated—and now you are here with us,” said Herzog.

“Your presence is a message of hope: to encourage those still held captive, to cry out on their behalf, to pray, and to do everything possible to bring every one of them home, as soon as possible,” he added.

Wenkert appealed to Herzog and world leaders across the globe to do everything in their power to free the hostages immediately.

“This is not a political issue. It’s not about right or left. First and foremost, it is our duty—as a people and as a state—to bring all our people back,” said Wenkert.

“I also want to say that I am deeply worried about the condition of the hostages. It’s been a long time since I came back—over 100 days. That’s not a short time. I’m very worried, and while people say it’s a cliché that every moment counts—it’s the truth. Every moment is critical,” he continued.

In March, Wenkert, 23, described the brutal abuse he endured at the hands of his Hamas captors.

“They just hit you like crazy with everything they can find, whether it’s hitting your legs with the barrel of the gun, punching your face, kicking you all over. With each punch you pass out and the next one wakes you up,” said Wenkert in a televised interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News.

On his birthday his captor had opened the door and awakened him in a state of “complete madness, insanely aggressively,” he recalled. “That was my birthday. [It] was my birthday gift … I was hit in the head with a crowbar,” he said.

Wenkert lost almost half his body weight, was beaten by Gaza mobs and by his captors, and was held in a dungeon alone for hundreds of days, according to Channel 12.

He survived 505 days in captivity.