WARNING: Graphic and violent visual content.
Israel is in a state of collective shock regarding many things in this post-October 7 apocalyptic reality. But perhaps the most incomprehensible is that 19 months after that attack, 59 hostages—alive and dead—remain captive in the most barbaric conditions. Then 22 years old, Alon Ohel had recently returned from his post-army trip to the Far East when he decided to head to the Nova Music Festival on Friday, October 6, 2023. Since then he has languished in a dark, airless tunnel. He is shackled. Cannot move or stand. Suffers from extensive shrapnel injuries and a severe head injury suffered when he was beaten immediately after capture by a Hamas madman. He repeatedly slammed the butt of a machine gun into Alon’s head. In real life, Alon is a gifted musician. He passes time in Hell by playing piano with his fingers on his chest. This, we know from his very close friend, Eli Sharabi, who was released in February. Sharabi tells the heartbreaking story of their final separation in a clip we include in the introduction to this interview with Alon’s mother, Idit Ohel. She is a mother doing everything conceivable to ensure that we do not forget her son and that he is released. Yesterday. Because Alon and all the captives are existing on borrowed time.
Idit had no sign of life from Alon from October 7—when she knew he had been captured alive—until the release of Eli Sharabi and other Israeli men who had been held with her son. She somehow pushes through her anguish each day to fight for his life and release. Parents and loved ones of hostages, like Idit, face this unimaginable situation in which their own government seems ambivalent, at best, about making the sacrifices necessary to bring their people home. Some Israelis say the price to be paid to free them is too high. Others believe that the price to be paid by forsaking them is even higher.
Idit is so thoughtful, and no holds barred. Tomorrow we bring you the other half of this story—an in-depth interview with “Five for Fighting’s” John Ondrasik, who has been a stalwart supporter of Israel and the hostage families from day 1. An extraordinary beacon of light.
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