A year and a half after his release from Hamas captivity, former hostage Omer Shem Tov is releasing a new book recounting the 505 days he spent in Gaza, including 50 days completely alone in a dark cell and the faith that helped him survive.

The Hebrew-language book, titled “A Meeting with Myself in Hell,” documents Shem Tov’s experiences after being abducted on October 7, as well as the thoughts and beliefs that sustained him. “I didn’t choose to be abducted. I didn’t choose to spend 505 days in the Hamas tunnels. I didn’t choose to be far away from my family, from my friends, and from my life,” he wrote.

Shem Tov described the particularly harrowing period in which he was held in complete isolation. “I certainly did not choose to spend 50 days alone, in a dark cell, just me, my thoughts, and G-d,” he wrote. Yet he said it was precisely when nearly everything had been taken from him that he realized there was one thing Hamas could not take away: his ability to choose. “The freedom to choose what to think. What to believe. What to give up on. And how to hold on even when the reality around me is impossible.”

Shem Tov said he began writing the book so he would remember not only what happened during his captivity, but what carried him through it — “the difficult moments, the faith, and the things I understood about myself.”

“I didn’t choose what happened to me,” Shem Tov wrote. “But I do choose what to take out of it with me for life.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)