Hamas hostage secretly dug a tunnel to escape Gaza captivity but was caught and tortured, he reveals

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.

Avinatan Or, 33, has given his first international interview describing 738 days in Hamas captivity after being seized at the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. He secretly dug his own tunnel in an attempt to break free, was caught by his captors, and was brutally tortured as punishment. His newly released memoir, 'Through the Earth', is already a number one bestseller in Israel and is to be translated into English.

Or and girlfriend Noa Argamani — whose motorcycle kidnapping became one of the defining images of the October 7 attack — were torn apart for more than two years; their relationship did not survive the ordeal.

Fellow survivor Omer Shem Tov, taken from the same Nova festival, also broke his silence this week, saying his 505 days in Gaza captivity drove him to write a memoir, 'Light From the Darkness', about reclaiming his identity.

October 7 left 1,200 people dead and 251 hostages taken into Gaza, making it the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.