Former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen returned to Kibbutz Nir Oz for an extraordinary performance, unveiling nine songs he created while enduring 498 days in Hamas captivity.

Unable to write anything down or play an instrument, Dekel-Chen composed the music inside his head and repeatedly rehearsed each song to ensure it would survive with him. The melodies became both an emotional refuge and a way to remain connected to the family whose fate he did not know.

One song was written for his unborn daughter. When Hamas abducted him on October 7, 2023, his wife, Avital, was pregnant. Dekel-Chen spent his captivity imagining the birth of a child whose name and face he would not learn until his release in February 2025.

After returning home, he quickly recorded the melodies he had carried back from Gaza. Those fragments eventually became a complete musical production featuring several leading Israeli artists, including Idan Raichel, Marina Maximilian and members of Hatikva 6.

Approximately 3,000 people gathered in Nir Oz to witness the deeply emotional performance. Former hostages, bereaved families and survivors were among those in attendance.

The location carried enormous significance. The concert was held on the grounds of the same kibbutz where Hamas terrorists murdered dozens of residents, destroyed homes and kidnapped scores of people on October 7.

Dekel-Chen had rushed to help defend Nir Oz as the attack unfolded. His wife and two young daughters survived by hiding inside their safe room, while he was dragged into Gaza and cut off from them for more than 16 months.

During the performance, Dekel-Chen acknowledged that he was not a professional singer. But the evening was never simply about vocal ability.

It was the fulfillment of a promise he had made to himself in captivity: If he survived, the songs created in Gaza’s darkness would one day be heard.

Hamas took Sagui Dekel-Chen from his home and tried to silence him.

After 498 days, he returned to Nir Oz and transformed the music that helped keep him alive into an anthem of survival.