Hostage who dug his own tunnel to escape Gaza describes years of isolation and brutal torture on October 7 anniversary
From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.
Isaac Herzog posted on X at 6:29am on October 7. Commemorations began nationwide at that precise moment — the exact time Hamas launched its attack three years ago.A corridor at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where newly released security footage shows 674 people were treated in the first 24 hours — more than five times the number the hospital had ever rehearsed for.The fire-damaged buildings of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where one in four residents was killed or taken hostage — this is the first anniversary to pass with no hostages still in captivity.Footage of a woman hiding in a dumpster during the Hamas attack, as Israel marks three years since the deadliest assault in its history killed 1,200 people.Footage of Hamas gunmen shooting a father as he tries to flee with his daughter under his arm on October 7, as Israel marks three years since the attack that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.Footage of an RPG attack on an ambulance at the Nova festival site, where crowds of Israelis have been gathering to commemorate three years since the massacre.
Avinatan Or, 33, has revealed for the first time how he secretly excavated a tunnel beneath Gaza in a desperate bid to escape Hamas captivity — only to be caught and subjected to brutal torture by his captors. Or endured 738 days in isolation deep underground after being torn from his girlfriend Noa Argamani at the Nova Music Festival, whose kidnapping on the back of a motorbike became one of the defining images of October 7. His newly released memoir, 'Through the Earth', is already a number one bestseller in Israel ahead of its English translation.
Or and Argamani fled together into a ditch and hid for roughly two hours before Hamas seized them separately, ending their relationship of more than a year.
Fellow Nova survivor May Hayat, 32, who escaped an ambulance moments before it was blown up, recalled being surrounded by eight terrorists armed with knives, hammers and wooden bats before being released.
Omer Shem Tov, who spent 505 days in Hamas captivity after being seized from the same festival, has also published a memoir — 'Light From the Darkness' — as survivors gather to mark three years since the massacre.
