Shocking New Details
Ex Hostage Segev Kalfon Describes Chilling Moment Hamas Murderers Planned to Execute Him, and How He Was Saved
Segev Kalfon recounts the most difficult moments of his life, from the moment he was abducted from the Nova festival, through his captivity in Gaza, his time in Hamas tunnels, and the moment he was a hair’s breadth from certain death. “I cried out Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad, forgive me, Creator of the World, for going to a party on Shabbat.”
Segev Kalfon recounted the first moments of the massacre:
“I see a trail of people, hundreds of people running across the field. We didn’t want to run that way, they were running toward Gaza. We fled in the opposite direction. We started hearing the gunfire getting closer and closing in on us. At some point, I reached a shaded tree, I needed air. Then a branch right next to me suddenly took a bullet. The branch exploded right in front of my eyes. It was at head level. Just 10 cm away, and it would have been inside my skull.”
Speaking to journalist Yaron Avraham, he added:
“We’re running through the field; I don’t know where I’m going, I’m just fleeing the bullets. The bullets start whistling past my ears. Then I reach the road, and as I cross it, I look right and see dozens of pickup trucks with terrorists coming toward me ... Dozens of trucks started arriving – there were maybe 100 terrorists. They just beat me senseless. They broke two of my teeth with rifle butts and punched me. Civilians were there too, Gaza civilians, hitting me. I stopped feeling it. They lifted me up, threw me in the middle of the truck. We were taking bullets to the vehicle. I was waiting for my death. I knew that at any moment, I was dead. My life was over in those moments. I knew that if they didn’t kill me on the road, they’d kill me inside Gaza. I was sure I was going to die.”
“A person finds his faith precisely in the lowest places. I remember crying out Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad, forgive me, Creator of the World, for going to the Nova party on Shabbat.”
“I was sure I was the only one inside the Strip. Then they beat me senseless inside that building. At some point, I stopped feeling the blows. I wasn’t screaming, nothing. I understood that this was how they were killing me – it was over, I was on my way to death. Then it stopped because they saw I was about to lose consciousness. I wasn’t reacting, wasn’t curling up, wasn’t moving. Just taking the blows and not even feeling the pain.” “I no longer asked”:
“Once I asked to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was just across the door. The 3-meter, 10-second walk to the bathroom turned into a nightmare. It took me an hour. With a donkey whip, a rubber whip, he lashed me with it. I’d fall, and he’d grab me by the hair, whip me again with full force. I told myself: even if I need the bathroom, I won’t ask. The walk there was a beating. I didn’t want the bathroom anymore. I said I’d urinate on myself and not go. And that’s what happened.”
On the incident previously described by Ohad Ben Ami after his release:
“One day I see a new, agitated guy. He turns on Al Jazeera and says, ‘You see this? Your army killed three of our civilians, and we in Hamas decided to execute three prisoners. Choose who among you will be executed."
Later in the Channel 12 interview, Segev described exactly what happened in the room:
“He took the Kalashnikov, loaded it, aimed it at us. We were terrified, frozen, not knowing what to do. I could already see the bullet coming. Then he said, ‘Okay, I see you’re not choosing now.’
They sat us three facing three, looking into each other’s eyes, understanding that three of us wouldn’t survive. We came in as six, but only three would leave alive.
“Then he played with us. He said, ‘Right side, the wounded. Left side, the ones I execute.’ Then he’d say, ‘You, move over here. You, over there. No, actually you, over here.’ He toyed with us, one moment making you feel you were the wounded one, the next that you were about to die. He put on this show for six hours.”
On the most difficult moments:
“At one point, I told myself that to end this phenomenon called Hamas, I needed to sacrifice myself for the country. I wanted the war to continue to finish them off, even if it cost my life. Evil like this must be eradicated, even if I give my life for it.”
He concluded:
“Then suddenly a different period came. A period with talks, suddenly a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, hope. Then you change your thinking. You say, no, I want to go home. They’re waiting for me at home. I have a family.”