Former hostage Or Levy: ‘The fact people are still there haunts me’

Or Levy, who spent 491 days as a Hamas hostage, spoke out this week about his ordeal and the pain of knowing others remain captive in Gaza.

Levy, 34, was freed in February, his pale, frail frame shocking the world. Nearly all his captivity was spent underground, shackled and starving.

“It’s hard to understand how difficult it is to live on one pita a day for 491 days …, no human should live like that,” he told CNN this week.

Levy was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. His wife, Einav, was killed in the attack, though he only knew for sure after his release. His first question to Israeli officials was about her.

“I asked about my wife. I said that I think I know, but I’m not 100% certain, and that I want to know,” he recalled.

While in captivity, Levy never asked his captors if his wife had survived. Instead, he focused on his son Almog, then two years old.

His will was strengthened by fellow hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli later executed by Hamas.

Goldberg-Polin shared a mantra with Levy: “He who has a ‘why’ can bear any ‘how,’” a quote linked to Friedrich Nietzsche and, more recently, philosopher and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl.

Almog was Levy’s “why.”

On Almog’s birthday last year, Levy spent the day crying, quietly singing “Happy Birthday” underground. He promised himself he would be home for the next one.

Two weeks ago, Levy kept that promise, celebrating Almog’s fourth birthday at home near Tel Aviv.

He later tattooed the life-saving mantra on his arm—the same place he would touch in captivity to keep hope alive.

Levy’s reunion with his son was filled with fear that Almog wouldn’t recognize him. But the embrace washed away that worry. “I remember seeing him, hugging him, hearing his voice … crazy,” he said.

The former hostage now devotes himself to being a full-time father, answering Almog’s growing questions about the “far place” where his dad was held and about his late mother.

“We told him that a big bomb happened and that unfortunately, mom is dead and I was taken to a far place,” Levy explained.

Almog often asks why his mother died and why his father didn’t take him along. Levy responds by reassuring his son that his mother loved him deeply. He keeps her memory alive through stories and photos.

“Even when it’s hard, it’s harder for him to not remember his mother.”

Yet Levy’s ordeal isn’t truly over. “The fact that people are still there haunts me in the night,” he said.

Watching the slow, uncertain progress of ceasefire negotiations is painful. Levy said that when talks stalled, Hamas would often worsen the hostages’ conditions.

“Very easily, I could have been there still,” he noted.

One of those who remain in Gaza is Alon Ohel, 24, an aspiring musician with whom Levy shared most of his captivity.

“I think that nothing is worth more than getting those people home,” Levy said. “I know that we need to push on to get a deal that gets everyone home and finish everything. Finish everything.”