Omer Shem Tov spoke with Fox News Digital, recounting his 505 days in Hamas captivity before his February release. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Shem Tov said that for roughly the last five months of his captivity, he lived in Hamas’ tunnel system beneath the Gaza Strip, where he was worked mercilessly.
"I was digging for them, and I was cleaning for them, and I was moving around bombs from place to places, and (carrying) food. I can tell you, just so you know, crazy amounts of food. Amounts of food that I've never seen before," he recounted.
Shem Tov learned about the American presidential election from his Hamas captors, who watched Al Jazeera on a TV kept in the tunnels.
"The last five months, the terrorists, they brought TV to the tunnel and most of the time they watched Al Jazeera. That's the only thing they watch. And … they wouldn't let me watch TV, yeah, but sometimes I would overhear the TV," he said.
Barron Trump, son of Donald Trump, from left, former US President Donald Trump, former US First Lady Melania Trump, Usha Chilukuri Vance, wife of JD Vance, Senator JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio and Republican vice-presidential nominee, and Ivanka Trump, former senior adviser to Donald Trump, during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"So everything changed," he said of how Hamas changed following Trump's win. "The amount of food that I got changed. The way they treated me changed. I could see just them preparing for something bigger."
Shem Tov recounted that he spent his 21st birthday in captivity, just weeks after he was first kidnapped. He said that between Oct. 7 and Oct. 30 of 2023, he did "not cry once," but that he felt a swell of emotion when remembering his family on his birthday.
President Trump meets with Hamas hostage survivors in the Oval Office on March 5, 2025. (POTUS/X)
"I personally told him that me and my family, and I would say all of Israel, believe that he was sent by God to release those hostages and to help Israel," Shem Tov recounted of what he told Trump during his meeting in February. "And he made that promise. He made that promise, he said that he will bring back all the hostages."
For Shem Tov, freedom after captivity has meant keeping close ties with fellow hostage survivors.
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"I would say they become like my family, like my brothers and sisters. We have many group chats and we see each other every once in a while and there are some who really become like brothers of mine," Shem Tov said.
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