The family of Hamas hostage Alon Ohel on Wednesday approved the publication of a still image from a propaganda video the terror group released Monday before the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
“These are not Alon’s eyes. Alon has gone blind in one eye,” said the 24-year-old captive’s family, which had requested the media to refrain from publishing the video or images from it when it was first published.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Ohel’s parents Idit and Kobi during Rosh Hashanah, the Prime Minister’s Office said after the holiday ended Wednesday evening, as the premier was set to depart to the US for the UN General Assembly.
Government hostage point-man Gal Hirsch joined the call, in which Netanyahu described to Ohel’s parents the “joint military-diplomatic maneuver being continuously carried out to defeat Hamas and return all our hostages,” the PMO said.
In a statement after they approved the image of their son for publication, Idit and Kobi Ohel thanked Netanyahu for the call and said they expect him to return from the US with “good news.”
“On the eve of Rosh Hashsanah we received a sign of life from our Alon,” said Idit in the statement, which was published via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “We’ve looked at each and every frame [of the clip] to get as much as we can out of it. The more we look, the more we worry.”
“You can see clearly” that Alon is now blind in one eye, she said, adding: “We’re extremely concerned about Alon’s second eye.”
Her son’s condition had “greatly deteriorated as a result of cruel captivity and maltreatment,” said Idit, thanking Netanyahu for “a long and sensitive conversation.”
Kobi Ohel said Netanyahu’s trip to the US “is a time for greatness for all the cabinet ministers to rise to the hour [and] be human enough and strong enough to give him all the support and strength so he’ll act for the release of Alon and the hostages.”
“Idit and I expect him to return from this trip with good news,” he said.
They repeated their call for the public not to publish the video, calling it “psychological terrorism that is meant to hurt us.”
The clip of Ohel was the second video released of him since his abduction by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and came less than three weeks after the first video. Ohel’s parents said at the time that the footage showed he was losing vision in one eye.
In their initial statement Monday after Hamas released the new video, Ohel’s parents demanded that he see an eye doctor before any more humanitarian aid is approved or negotiations are held with Hamas. They said they were “shaken” by the footage, which showed that Alon was also “thin and frightened.”
“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, in these days of repentance, the fate of the lives of young Jews, Israeli citizens, is in the hands of the prime minister and the cabinet. Don’t break the nation of Israel’s heart,” they said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić also slammed the video of Ohel, who holds German and Serbian citizenship.
“The dehumanizing footage of the German-Israeli national Alon Ohel, which Hamas published of all times on Rosh Hashanah, is unbearable. Hamas must immediately release all hostages,” Merz wrote Monday on X. “The ceasefire must come now, the suffering must end.”
Đurić on Monday said Serbia “stands in sorrow” with Ohel: “The video released today is a cruel blow to his parents, Idit and Kobi, and to all who long for his return.”
“We call for the immediate release of Alon and all hostages,”Đurić wrote on Facebook. “May this new year bring peace and freedom.”
Ohel, a talented pianist, was abducted from the Reim-area Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, as thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
He went to the desert rave with several friends, arriving at 5:30 a.m., an hour before the onslaught began. He has his friends fled to the so-called “bunker of death,” a roadside shelter that the terrorists attacked, killing many of the people who had fled from Nova.
Ohel was taken captive along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy. Goldberg-Polin was murdered in captivity, while the latter two have been released as part of hostage deals.
Terror groups in Gaza are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of those abducted in the October 7 onslaught and a soldier killed fighting in the Strip in 2014. At least 26 hostages have been confirmed dead by the IDF and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.