Former Hamas hostage Tal Shoham reveals harrowing details of 505 days in Gaza tunnels—describing suffocation, torture, fleeting hope from a hidden letter, and the heart-wrenching separation from fellow captives who remain behind.
After 505 days in Hamas captivity, Tal Shoham has returned home—but his heart remains underground in Gaza, with fellow hostages Guy Gilboa Dalal and Evyatar David still trapped in the darkness.
In a moving interview with Kan Reshet Bet, Shoham described life beneath Gaza’s tunnels as “an existence without air, without light, without dignity.” The former hostage recalled suffocating humidity, endless filth, hunger, torture, and despair. “It’s impossible to put into words. For weeks after my release, I still couldn’t breathe freely. Down there, our only task was to survive each day. Nothing else mattered.”
Shoham said the most painful part of his freedom is the separation from his brothers in captivity: “Every morning I wake up with Guy and Evyatar on my mind. The horrific images Hamas released a few weeks ago—the extreme hunger, the suffering—haunt me.”
He recalled a rare flicker of hope when a Hamas guard secretly allowed him to read a single letter from his wife, Adi, confirming that she and their children had been released: “He threatened to kill me if I told anyone. I could read it once, then he took it back. But it was everything. That one letter kept me alive.”
The day of his release was abrupt and bitter. Shoham recounted how Hamas deceived him into thinking he had days left to say goodbye to Guy and Evyatar—only to suddenly separate them: “It felt like Holocaust stories—families parting, knowing they might never meet again. I told them I loved them, not to lose hope. Then we were blindfolded and rushed away. They stayed behind.”
Today, after his first shower, first breaths of fresh air, and a tearful reunion with his family, Shoham carries both gratitude and grief. His message to his friends in the tunnels is unwavering:
“Guy, Evyatar—don’t lose hope. You are not forgotten. We are fighting for you. I pray that soon this nightmare will end, that you will come home, and that together we can begin to heal this bleeding wound.”
