Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov turns 22 in Hamas captivity

Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov on Thursday turned 22 in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Shem Tov was kidnapped by terrorists from the Supernova music festival during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in the northwestern Negev. He was forcefully taken along with friends Itay Regev, 18, and his sister Maya, 21.

The Regev siblings were released on Nov. 29, but Omer remains in Gaza along with another 100 hostages.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an organization established to lobby for their release, wished Omer a happy birthday in an X post, writing that “our only wish is that you will reunite with your family soon.”

“I was held with a very good friend of mine, Omer Shem Tov. I don’t know what is happening to him and I don’t know what will happen. Omer and all the other hostages must return immediately,” Itay told JNS during a visit to the Nova site in January.

Omer last spoke to his parents at around 10 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023. He had shared his cell phone’s live location with his family, who noticed that the vehicle in which he had escaped was heading in the direction of Gaza.

Omer’s family tried to contact him, in vain. Later, the family identified him by his tattoos in a video posted to a Hamas Telegram channel.

“My brother suffers from severe asthma and celiac disease. From what Itay and Maya told us, he wakes up and can’t breathe,” Amit Shem Tov, Omer’s brother, told JNS at the Supernova memorial ceremony on Jan. 5.

Their father was filmed in December during a meeting between families of the hostages and Red Cross representatives urging them to take Omer’s inhaler and deliver it to him.

“They [his captors] give them bread and pita, even though he is allergic to gluten. He eats to survive but it gives him horrible pain. It’s hard to imagine,” said Amit.