Captivity survivor Tal Shoham speaks to “60 Minutes” about the time he spent in captivity with Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David: They are not children, but from time to time, I felt like a father. I really, really fear that they are now alone.
Captivity survivor Tal Shoham, who was freed from captivity during the recent hostage release deal, gave an interview to CBS’ “60 Minutes” which aired on Sunday night.
The program also featured testimony from captivity survivors Yarden Bibas, as well as Keith and Aviva Siegel.
Shoham, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri, recalled the time he spent in captivity with Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, two best friends who were kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival and are still being held captive.
“After I met Guy and Evyatar, I met their parents [upon returning from captivity] to tell them about their sons,” Tal recalled in the interview with Lesley Stahl.
As Tal spoke about the devastating conditions they endured, he revealed the unimaginable toll the captivity took on Guy, a young man once full of life.
“One moment he’s, like, partying in the Nova, the second moment he’s in the worst place in the world. And it took him, I think, five or six days just to stop crying, to start to realize that this is the reality now,” Shoham explained.
Confined to a narrow tunnel, Guy and Evyatar faced daily beatings and were given only minimal amounts of pita, rice, and water to survive, said Shoham. The water they received was often contaminated.
“Sometimes the water tastes like blood, sometimes like iron. Sometimes it was so salty that you could not drink it, but you don’t have anything else. You don’t need too much to stay alive. You can eat only one bread every day, and if you have like, 200 mL of water every day, you will stay alive,” Shoham described.
For the hostages, survival became a matter of ingenuity. Shoham recounted how they bartered with one of the guards, who was fond of back rubs. “We did exchange. The exchange was that he will get a massage every day, and he will bring us some more food. And different food, like a can of meat, a can of tuna or sardines,” Shoham said, highlighting their resourcefulness. He shared a particularly heartbreaking moment when Guy and Evyatar expressed their despair. “One of the toughest things that I heard from them, they told me more than once that why stay alive now? Why just not take their own life with their own hand and finish it, I mean to get released from this.”
“They are not children, but from time to time, I felt like a father. I really, really fear that they are now alone,” added Shoham.
