How One Hostage Found God in a Hamas Tunnel

Key Takeaways

• Omer Shem Tov spent 505 days in Hamas captivity, held for long lengths of time alone and in pitch-black tunnels with almost no food
• He always believed in God but wasn’t observant before captivity
• A desperate prayer was answered in ten minutes
• He and his mother were reciting the same psalm, Psalm 20, without either knowing
• On the day of his release, blindfolded at the tunnel exit, he and fellow hostages sang Psalm 121 out loud in front of their captors
• Since his release he dons tefillin daily, keeps kosher, and tries his best to observe Shabbat

Taken from the Nova Festival

One moment he was dancing at a music festival. The next, Hamas gunmen had him on the back of a pickup truck, hands bound, being driven into Gaza. Omer Shem Tov was 21 years old. He had always believed in God, but he wasn’t observant. He didn’t keep much in terms of Jewish religious practices. Faith was somewhere in the background of his life. Then came 505 days in captivity, mostly underground, sometimes in the dark, alone, with almost nothing to eat and no way to know if anyone was coming to rescue him. 

What happened to him in those tunnels is a story about cruelty, yes. But it’s also a story about what a person finds when everything else is taken away. 

What Hamas Did to Him

Part of Omer’s captivity was in isolation behind bars. There was no fresh air, no sunlight, no sense of time. Just darkness, pitch black all day. There were times he thought he’d actually gone blind, the darkness was so thick. 

His Hamas captors regularly cursed at him, spat on him, starved him, and forced labor upon him. As part of their psychological abuse, they would tell him his family wasn’t fighting for his release and the IDF soldiers wanted to kill him. They once threatened to shoot him in the head if he refused to help explode a booby-trapped building of IDF soldiers. He told them: “Then shoot me in the head. I’m not doing that.”

He went 50 days before being offered his first shower. He describes the sensation of scraping the thick soot off his skin.

He has asthma and could barely breathe in the underground tunnels. He also has celiac disease, and despite his celiac, he was initially given two pitas a day. Later, his food was reduced to only a biscuit and a small amount of salty water for much of his captivity. He lost 17 kilograms of body weight during his captivity. 

The Prayer That Got Answered in Ten Minutes

After a few months in a tiny, dank cell that was so cramped he had to crouch when standing, Omer reached his limit. The hunger, the dark, and the silence was taking its final toll on him. He was barely able to stand. At his weakest and lowest point, he offered a prayer from the depths of his soul. He begged God to help him survive and to just move him to somewhere new, where he could make it through.

Ten minutes later, his captors opened the cell door. “Omer, get your stuff. You’re moving to a new place.”

They took him on a walk through a labyrinth of tunnels and he soon found himself in a larger underground chamber. White tiled walls. Electricity. Light. A shower.

“It was paradise [by comparison],” he said. It was obvious his prayer had been answered.

Survival in Hamas Tunnels: The Nightly Dialogue

His captors controlled everything around him. The food, the air, the light, the space. What they couldn’t reach was the conversation he had with God each night before he closed his eyes. That belonged entirely to him.

Every evening, Omer talked to God. He started by asking God how He felt. He genuinely approached prayer as a conversation with a friend. Then he worked through everything he could think to be grateful for, and only after that would he make requests of God.

“Thank you for letting me breathe, for the food I get. Guide me, strengthen me and keep my family safe.”

📖Read how this former hostage thanks kindergarten children who prayed for his release

The Power of Psalm 20

A few months into captivity, IDF soldiers fought near the tunnel where Omer was held. They didn’t reach him, but they left books behind. His captors recovered the Hebrew books, as well as a card inscribed with Psalm 20 and a Jewish blessing for safe travels. The card ended up in Omer’s hands.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of God.” He memorized it and read it every single day.

What Omer didn’t know was that his mother, Shelly, was going into his empty bedroom in Hertzliya every single day and reciting that same chapter 20 of Psalms out loud as a plea for his return. Only later did he learn that his mother had chosen the same psalm. “We were connected,” he said.

Faith in Captivity: How It Grew

What 505 days in Gaza did wasn’t build faith from nothing. It took what was already there and stripped away everything else around it, until faith was the only solid thing left standing. 

He says, “There I started to really connect to God.” In captivity, while his life was “depressing”, he said that he never lost hope, and, in fact, his faith became stronger. 

He mentions that after reading the story of Joseph in one of the Hebrew books he was given, he felt that “everywhere I went, I saw God in every way possible…I witnessed miracles. Really. I did really witness miracles, from small ones to great ones. I saw miracles, and my faith in God  became very, very strong.”

📖Read how this former hostage proclaims his faith at the very place from which he was abducted

Singing at the Tunnel Exit

On the day of his release, blindfolded and dressed by his Hamas captors in an army uniform, he stood at the tunnel exit with fellow hostages Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert.

“I heard Eliya quietly saying Shir Hama’alot,” Omer said. “I started singing it. Then Omer joined. So the three of us sang it together, loud and proud, in front of the terrorists. I’ll never forget it.”

Shir Hama’alot is Psalm 121. “I lift my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come? My help comes from God, Maker of heaven and earth.”

They sang it blindfolded. And they sang it in front of the men who had held them captive for 505 days.

Who He Is Now

Since his release, Omer’s hostage testimony has reached audiences across the world. Omer puts on tefillin every morning (sacred leather boxes with biblical writings inside, worn at morning prayer). He keeps kosher (Jewish dietary laws). He tries his best to observe Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath).

His message to others: “Believe in God. Believe in His path. He’s putting you through something for a reason. Trust Him and keep praying and saying thank you…Trust God, He is good. Try to make the best out of what He’s given you.”

The tunnel was built to break him. He came out singing.

Want to keep reading? Learn about how this hostage found faith in the tunnels from this one book. Explore more on faith, values, and the Land of Israel at Sinai Project.