By Abdul Masih –
Somewhere in the 491 days of Hamas captivity, Or Levi found God.
“One would assume that when you’re there in a living hell, you would lose what little belief you had” in God, Or says. “But for me, it was the opposite.”
Or, of Mishan, Israel, was released Feb. 8 of this year. Another 50 hostages, half of them already dead, are still being held by Hamas as the war grinds to a bitter end.
Exactly two years ago, Gazan militants caught Israel by surprise and made incursion into the nation, killing 1,200 and kidnapping 250. Israel says it cannot stop bombing Gaza until all the hostages are released, one of its war objectives.
Or was one of the ones at the Nova Music Festival. When he and his wife realized the 6:29 a.m. invasion was not a drill, they took refuge in one of the bomb shelters that dot the highway. That’s where Hamas soldiers cornered them and 46 others crammed in the small cement building.
Hamas fired bullets in, threw in grenades and even an RPG. The Israelis closest to the entrance took the brunt. Or threw out a grenade before it exploded. His body suffered injuries from the multiple attacks.
When militants entered the bomb shelter, he begged for his life. “I have a child,” he pleaded.
His wife, on the other hand, said nothing. She was killed, while Or was dragged out and ultimately thrown into a truck bed and taken to Gaza.
When he entered Gaza, mobs of Gazans tried to pull him off the truck to lynch him.
Ironically, it was Hamas who saved him from being torn by the mob. It is chilling to realize that so many Gazans are worse than Hamas.
“I remember thinking that Hamas was my only way to survive,” he says. “The mob just wanted to kill me. But I was worth something to Hamas.”
He was a bargaining chip to get Palestinian terrorists released from Israel’s jails.
For several weeks, he was held hostage in an apartment. He wasn’t allowed to speak. The food was OK, he says.
Then militants took him and his fellow hostages into the tunnels underneath Gaza City. The slept on the ground. The food was half a can of lentils a day. They were chained to each other. When his chain buddy went to the bathroom, he had to go with him. When he turned over in his sleep, he had to turn over with him.
In the first spot, there was an LED light. Later they were taken to a tunnel with no light.
Or was barely, if at all, religious in Judaism. But in his captivity, he started talking in his mind.
“I used to talk to a crack in the ceiling. Then we got into the tunnel and I switched this crack with LED light,” Or says. “When we got to the tunnel with darkness, from that point I spoke to God.”
When despair boiled over, he would pray. And something good would happen. Sometimes, he was given a cup of tea. Or he and three other captives were given a pita.
“When you’re there, it can change how you see a day from the worst to the best,” Or says. “When you’re there, the little wins are what you need or what helps you get through the day.”
He wondered if he was wife was alive. She was not.
He wondered if his son would recognize him. Or’s son was only two when he got imprisoned.
At one point, a Hamas militant asked him a sincere question: Why do you Jews value the living?
Israel will do pretty much anything to rescue its living citizens.
“They value the dead,” Or says.
The dead become propaganda to use against Israel. They view them as necessary sacrifices in the Islamic battle against the Jews.
Then a senior Hamas officer came. He fed the captives and gave them the first hot shower in over a year. They also gave them the first toothpaste in over a year.
Source: Jewish Learning Institute.
Or was going home to Israel and to his son. His companions remained.
Red Cross trucks took them to the border, where the Israel Defense Force received them.
“I saw this woman from the army and I asked her right away about my wife. She told me she was murdered,” he says. “A second after she showed me a video of my son. So it was simultaneously the best and the worst
day of my life.”
When he was reunited with his son, now 3 1/2 years old, his son laughed and cried.
“Then he asked me why it took me so long to come back. We all laughed,” Or tells. “Then he asked, ‘Where’s mom?’ And I started crying. Then he answered it calmly, ‘Mommy’s dead.'”
Or and his son are inseparable. They even sleep in the same bed.
Or tries to enjoy every day. He also wishes all the other captives would be released.
Related content: Imam says Holy Land belongs to the Jews, the hardline prime minister of Israel, Christianity on the rise in Arab nations.
