Israel at War

After 505 days, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, and Eliya Cohen, who were abducted on October 7, alongside Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held for over a decade, are back home in Israel, and reunited with their families.

The father of 22-year-old Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who was abducted from the Nova music festival, revealed in an interview: "We received a sign of life from Guy through one of the hostages who has just returned. He was with Guy for a long time, this gives us a lot of hope." Hamas released three hostages: Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, and Eliya Cohen, who were also abducted from the Nova festival.

After 505 days, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, and Eliya Cohen, who were abducted on October 7, alongside Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held for over a decade, are back home in Israel.

After completing the identification process, IDF representatives informed the Bibas-Silverman family that Shiri was murdered in captivity. Shiri was abducted alive with her children, Ariel and Kfir, and is believed to have been brutally murdered in the early weeks of the war.

When Omer Shem Tov was abducted, he sent his family a live location, and they watched in fear as he was taken into the Gaza Strip. His mother shared how much she longs to once again do the little everyday things with him – and, most of all, to hug him.

Eliya is Expected to be released this coming Saturday. He will Rreturn to his mother, who fought for his release, and to his fiancée, who discovered he had planned to propose to her.

Omer Wenkert went to dance with his good friend Kim Damati, who was killed, at the Nova festival in Re’im. Just before he was kidnapped, his mother received frightened messages. His family is deeply concerned for his well-being, partly because of his ongoing intestinal illness.

Shoam, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri with his children on Oct. 7, was released from Hamas captivity on Saturday.

Mengistu was born in Ethiopia in 1986 and immigrated to Israel at the age of five as part of Operation Solomon. Since 2014, he had been held captive by Hamas after crossing the border into Gaza, more than ten years ago.