Yosef Chaim Ohana:
Ohana, a Givati Brigade fighter and commander, succeeded in masking his military role entirely from Hamas interrogators, as revealed by his father in a post-release interview. Abducted from the Nova music festival, Ohana faced relentless questioning but deflected with tales of being a mere settler.
His 18 months underground involved starvation rations bread and tainted water and psychological warfare, including forced viewings of propaganda videos glorifying the attacks. "He whispered Tehillim [Psalms] to stay sane," his father said, noting how Ohana's training helped him map tunnels mentally, info now aiding IDF intel.
“Ohana shared a little, but it’s still hard for him to talk… it will take time,” said Avi Ohana, Yosef Chaim’s father. “Right after the deal was signed, I asked him if the conditions improved, if they were taken out of the tunnels, given better treatment.
“He smiled faintly and said, ‘Dad, what are you talking about? As soon as the deal was signed, they took us, seven hostages together, down endless stairs. We thought we were being taken to another tunnel, but we ended up in a pit.’
“The pit was so small… there was no oxygen, total darkness. We stood for four or five days waiting for release, we couldn’t even sit down because there was no room,” Avi recounted.
According to Ohana, his son told him: “Dad, don’t think otherwise, they want to destroy all of Israel. Everyone there is Hamas. Even little kids say, ‘We want to kill you.’”
He said that on the day of the abduction, his son helped treat the wounded under fire. “He carried injured people for hours. When the RPG fire started, it separated him from his friends — he didn’t know until yesterday if they were dead or alive.”
During captivity, the hostages were occasionally exposed to outside broadcasts. “They let them watch Al Jazeera once every few weeks,” the father said. “At one point, the terrorists gave them a small radio to hear the Quran, but Yosef and his friend managed to rig it to the tunnel’s electrical wires and for 30 days, they tuned into Galei Tzahal (Army Radio). One morning, he said, he suddenly heard my voice on the broadcast. He told me: ‘That was the first sign of life I got from you, proof you were alive. It gave me strength to go on.’”
Avi Ohana described the horror: “He said dozens of times they pointed a loaded gun at his head. He would stop them and say, ‘Wait, wait, let me say a few words first,’ and start convincing them it wasn’t worth it. He told one terrorist, ‘If you kill me, what do you gain? I’m just one person.’ And the terrorist replied, ‘You’re right. But it will make me happier to kill you than anything I’d gain from keeping you alive.’ That’s the level of hatred we’re dealing with.”
“Ohana said, ‘These aren’t human beings. The word “human” doesn’t belong to them.’”
