A former Israeli hostage, held for more than 16 months by Hamas terrorists, is speaking out in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News — describing brutal captivity in Gaza’s tunnels and declaring that President Donald Trump’s return to power gave him his first real hope of survival, saying he owes the U.S. Commander in Chief his life, insisting the president sincerely cares, makes peace, and deserves the “Nobel Peace Prize.”
On the 700th day since Hamas’s October 7 massacre — with Israel preparing to storm Gaza City unless hostages are freed and President Trump issuing what he called the terror group’s “last warning” to cut a deal “or else” — recently freed hostage Tal Shoham recounted how Hamas deliberately starved captives to pressure Israel as well as how he was subjected to a systematic “humiliation process.”
Shoham revisited the day he, his wife Adi, and their two children were seized from Kibbutz Be’eri during the assault that killed more than 1,200 Israelis. He recalled being dragged from a safe room after terrorists blew the door with explosives.
“They felt no fear,” he said of the armed men laughing and filming him. Thrown into a car trunk and driven into Gaza, he was later marched on a motorbike through the streets as bystanders cheered and beat him.
“They shouted, ‘We caught a Jewish soldier pig,’” he stated. “Though I was a civilian — it didn’t matter to them.”
Torture as a Strategy
Shoham described months of solitary confinement, starvation, and abuse, where hostages were also forced into staged videos praising Hamas.
“They made us say Hamas treated us well,” he said. “But we were given very little to eat, and on some days nothing.”
He recalled rations shrinking to half a pita with two teaspoons of cheese.
Guards, he said, turned cruelty into ritual.
“We called it the ‘humiliation process,’” he explained. “The main guard would call us in, slap or beat us, then eat beans and meat and a lot of bread in front of us while telling lies about how Israel had forgotten us, that our families were dead, that nobody wanted to rescue us.”
On Fridays, he said, food was cut even further as guards feasted for themselves.
“The starvation was so intense that just to stand up we needed to lean on the wall not to faint,” he said.
Shoham recounted being disguised along with other hostages as Hamas members and loaded into a Red Crescent ambulance packed with heavily armed terrorists — an abuse of humanitarian protection Shoham called a “war crime.”
“They put a surgical mask over our eyes so we couldn’t see,” he stated. “After twenty minutes the air changed; we were rushed downhill and I understood we were entering a tunnel — my worst fear — to be buried alive.”
Entombed Underground
The former hostage described stumbling for two and a half hours through darkness before being shoved into a chamber “about three feet wide, six feet high, and forty feet long; with four mattresses on sand and a hole in the ground for use as a toilet.”
“They closed the iron door from the other side. We were blocked in completely,” he added. “That was our tomb.”
Air was scarce, water limited to half a liter a day, and showers came only once every three to five weeks.
“Sometimes we chose between drinking water or washing our hands, while soap was really rare,” he recalled. Most days brought starvation. Guards, meanwhile, ate bread, rice, and meat from stolen aid.
“We smelled the cooking — sometimes six different meals — but for us only leftovers, plain rice, maybe a pita,” he said. “Sometimes I chose to skip food just to avoid the thirst afterward, because the thirst was worse than hunger.
Hamas’ ‘Calculated’ Starvation to Pressure Israel
“They told us openly: we are starving you so you will come out looking like after the Holocaust — skeletal, emaciated — so Israelis will feel pressure,” he added.
Despite being starved, Shoham noted that Hamas forced hostages to say they were being treated well.
“Once they brought us to a different room, sat us at a table with rice, meat, and coffee, and filmed us to make it look like we were treated well. But it was all a show — we never received food like that,” he said.
“Before my release they filmed a staged ‘farewell meal’ — rice and juice,” he added. “They never gave us food like that.”
The abuse, Shoham stated, often became life-threatening.
“We were only minutes from suffocating to death after they pumped smoke into the cell,” he added.
Both he and fellow hostages suffered scurvy, he explained, adding that lights were “weaponized” to erase all sense of time.
“Lights were sometimes left on around the clock, other times cut for 12–15 hours, plunging us into absolute darkness — you couldn’t see your own hand,” he stated. “Even using the toilet was a dangerous calculation not to fall into the hole.”
Hamas Propaganda as a Weapon
“They filmed everything,” Shoham said. Guards staged fake banquets for the cameras and demanded exaggerated reactions while interrogations were held in mosques.
“People criticize Israel for targeting religious sites or ambulances, but I saw with my own eyes Hamas using mosques, hospitals, and Red Crescent vehicles — and even their own civilians — as tools,” he stated.
When he asked about the risk they were posing to nearby women and children, the guards told him: “They’ll be martyrs. They will go to heaven, so don’t worry about it.”
“These are the people we are fighting against,” the former hostage stated. “They sacrifice their own people without blinking.”
What followed, he continued, was a campaign of emotional manipulation.
“They told us one of you will be released — then filmed our reaction and demanded we ‘show more emotion.’ It was all psychological warfare meant to pressure Israel through us,” he said. “They also told us: ‘some of you are good, some are bad,’ and then they tried to film our reactions to only one of us being released. When we didn’t do it well enough, they said we had to cry more.”
The performance extended beyond the prison walls.
“They filmed us walking in the ruins of Rafah surrounded by 100 masked terrorists, handing us chocolates and juice for the cameras,” he said. “It was sheer theater.”
Even the abuse itself was turned into a test.
“They laughed and said they wanted to test us — if we would ‘love’ them after humiliation and abuse,” he stated.
‘Terror vs. Civilization’
Shoham said Hamas rules by fear, including Gazan protest leaders being dragged through the streets, kneecappings for dissent, and executions without trial.
“There are no courts, no judges — only Hamas deciding life or death,” he stated, noting that threats to Israelis were direct: “They told us: ‘if we survive, next time we will annihilate all the Jews.’ They mean it.”
He added that repression extended to every corner of life in Gaza.
“If you are LGBT in Gaza, they’d shoot you in the knees — because you can’t repair a knee — and then they’d throw you in prison,” he said. “There is no democracy, no freedom, only their version of the Koran. Any protesters would be tortured or killed.”
Shoham underscored the hypocrisy of Western supporters.
“The irony is that these people who cheer Hamas would be the first to be executed or abused under them,” he explained.
For him, Hamas represented not just terrorism, but the “collapse” of human values.
“People are cheering terrorists who rape children, burn families alive, and loot corpses. It’s ISIS conduct — all documented — and yet some in the West still stand with them,” he stated. “It feels like the world has turned upside down.”
Still shaken by new propaganda videos, he warned: “If Hamas survives, they’ll do it again.”
Trump’s Election Gave Hope, Deserves Nobel Prize
Shoham, who was the last hostage freed in the final exchange negotiated under President Trump — a deal that went into effect the very day he took office, recalled the moment he first felt genuine hope.
“They told us in December 2024 that Trump was elected and I was really relieved, because I knew there was a real chance we’d be released,” he said.
From that moment, he said, survival felt possible.
“I owe my life to President Trump,” he stated. “He’s the only one who actually makes peace in the Middle East. He sincerely cares.”
Shoham, who was later invited to the White House, said Trump’s influence was decisive — not only for Israel but in pressuring Hamas’s backers in Qatar and Turkey.
“President Trump understood what we were facing,” he stated. “He isn’t afraid to call out the enablers — or to act.”
“I really hope he will receive the Nobel Prize,” he added, “because he is trying to make the world a better place.”
Shifting the Stalemate
Shoham’s account comes as Israel warns Gaza City will be the next battleground unless hostages are freed. He noted that the deadlock only began to shift after President Trump’s return to office.
On Sunday, Trump issued what he called Hamas’s “last warning” to cut a deal.
Shoham pointed to Trump’s hardline approach — demanding immediate releases and warning of consequences — as already producing results. Hamas has, for the first time in months, signaled willingness to enter a comprehensive agreement. In addition, several hostages have been freed, which Shoham said reflects a strategy rooted in strength and direct engagement.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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