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How Omer Shem Tov, who was 20 years old and not particularly religious when taken hostage, survived 505 days in captivity.
Isabel Kershner has been reporting for 18 months on the hostages seized in the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and interviewed Omer Shem Tov in Herzliya.
June 10, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
Each morning, Shelly Shem Tov would enter her son’s empty bedroom and recite Chapter 20 from the biblical Book of Psalms, an ancient plea for deliverance.
All the while she was unaware that her son, Omer Shem Tov, happened to be uttering the very same verses of Psalm 20 — “May the Lord answer you on a day of distress.”
He had adopted the same daily ritual about 130 feet underground, alone, in a Hamas tunnel in Gaza.
Mr. Shem Tov was 20 when gunmen seized him during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. He had grown up in a largely secular home, and was living a relatively carefree existence after completing his compulsory military service — waiting tables in a steakhouse to earn money for a post-army trip to South America, a popular rite of passage for many Israelis of his age.
He was captured while fleeing the Nova music festival, a rave party attended by thousands near the Gaza border.
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A few days into his captivity, he said, he began to speak to God. He made vows. He began to bless whatever food he was given. And he had requests — some of which he believes were answered.
