Luis Har, proven right here in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 27, was taken hostage throughout the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults and freed by an Israeli particular forces operation in February. In captivity, he says, “Every time we fell into depression, we overcame it with stories. We started to say, where are we going to travel to today in our minds?”

Tamir Kalifa for NPR

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Tamir Kalifa for NPR

Luis Har, proven right here in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 27, was taken hostage throughout the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults and freed by an Israeli particular forces operation in February. In captivity, he says, “Every time we fell into depression, we overcame it with stories. We started to say, where are we going to travel to today in our minds?”

Tamir Kalifa for NPR

TEL AVIV — Every night when it turned darkish, earlier than guards turned on a lightweight, Israeli hostage Luis Har instructed his fellow captives a narrative.

“I have a rich past of stories,” Har, 71, says. “It helped us pass the time.”

Storytelling, and touring in his creativeness, had been among the ways in which Har, an accountant, dancer and actor, endured 129 days in captivity in southern Gaza. A dramatic Israeli commando raid Feb. 12 rescued him and one other hostage — the final time any Israeli hostages in Gaza had been freed.

More than 1,200 folks had been killed and greater than 250 hostages had been taken captive within the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel, in keeping with the Israeli authorities. About half the hostages had been launched in a November cease-fire deal. More than 130 remain. Many of them are nonetheless presumed to be alive.

In an interview with NPR on the headquarters of the principle advocacy group representing households of Israeli hostages in Gaza, Har revealed private particulars of his captivity, his reflections on his rescue operation — and why he doesn’t need Israel to hold out army raids to free the remaining hostages from Gaza.

The seize

When Hamas rockets began flying into Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, it did not appear uncommon to Har and his household.

Originally from Argentina, he lived in a kibbutz close to the Gaza border. He was together with his accomplice and her brother, sister and niece on Oct. 7. As the rocket fireplace intensified, they turned on the TV and watched protection of Hamas attackers getting into cities and kibbutz communities close by.

“We all gathered in the safe room and we said, a few minutes and we’ll get out,” he says. “We heard pounding at the door, breaking glass windows. Suddenly, we heard Arabic. They broke into the house … We were in total shock.”

A view of the home from the place Israeli hostages Luis Har and Fernando Simon Marman had been kidnapped throughout the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, within the Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, Israel. Marman and Har had been freed in a particular forces operation in Rafah, Gaza, on Feb. 12, the identical day this photograph was taken.

Dylan Martinez/REUTERS

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Dylan Martinez/REUTERS

A view of the home from the place Israeli hostages Luis Har and Fernando Simon Marman had been kidnapped throughout the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, within the Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, Israel. Marman and Har had been freed in a particular forces operation in Rafah, Gaza, on Feb. 12, the identical day this photograph was taken.

Dylan Martinez/REUTERS

The captivity

Armed males pressured all 5 of them onto the again of a pickup truck, making them sit on a pile of weapons. They had been pushed away and led on foot by way of a tunnel for hours. Then they climbed up a ladder to sunlight in Gaza.

Har says they had been moved from one residence to a different, and finally dropped at an condominium, the place they had been all saved in a single room. Four armed males guarded them. His accomplice’s 17-year-old niece had introduced alongside Bella, her Shih Tzu.

“In the beginning, they were always suspicious and with their weapons, and they would shout. And we ignored it,” Har recollects.

Har says the guards didn’t harass anybody bodily, however the captives had been most afraid for the 17-year-old lady.

“One of the guards fixated on her and would tell the girl all the time he wanted to marry her,” he recollects. “And we told her to turn around, to pretend she was sleeping. She was very tense and stressed and cried several times, quietly, so they wouldn’t hear. We tried to calm her. We didn’t say it out loud, but each one of us, within ourselves, was worried.”

The tales

The 5 captives did not have a radio or TV. Their captors would inform them bits and items in regards to the conflict, like when the Israeli military mistakenly killed three different hostages. It was true, however they did not know whether or not to consider what they had been instructed.

Every night, it could develop darkish earlier than the guards turned on the sunshine, and the captives had a ritual: Har’s accomplice’s niece would ask him to inform a narrative. He’s a people dancer, so he’d discuss dance. He acts in musical theater. He drew on his experiences and did his greatest to amuse his family members.

“Once, we were in a show. And one of the girls lifted her leg, and her shoe flew off her foot. And it did this in the air, boom, and fell on the audience. We burst out laughing,” he says. “Stories like that, usually funny things to pass the time.”

The farewell

After 53 days, Har’s accomplice and her sister and niece had been freed, together with Bella the canine, as a part of a November cease-fire and hostage deal. Har was overjoyed that his household again in Israel would be taught he was alive. He and his accomplice’s brother, Fernando Simon Marman, had been instructed by their captors that they’d even be freed in a couple of days. Then the cease-fire broke down.

“It was Friday, 7 in the morning. We suddenly heard the explosions. We understood, that’s it. We’re not leaving,” he says.

“Every time we fell into depression, we overcame it with stories. We started to say, where are we going to travel to today in our minds? So today we are in Argentina. And we’re doing this, and we’re doing that.”

The rescue

On Feb. 12, 129 days into their captivity, Har and Marman had been woken up in the midst of the evening by an enormous explosion. Har thought the Israeli army, generally known as the Israel Defense Forces, was bombing the constructing they had been in.

“Someone grabbed my leg. He said my name — Luis. He said, IDF, IDF. We came to take you home.”

During the rescue raid, the Israeli army carried out large-scale airstrikes in Rafah as a diversion to supply cowl to the particular forces. More than 70 Palestinian males, ladies and kids were killed in these strikes, and greater than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed because the conflict started, in keeping with Gaza well being officers.

“I don’t know,” Har says, when requested about Palestinians killed within the rescue raid. “It’s not my business. The military can answer you. I see that most of the people there are Hamas. They don’t intend to pet us and to love us, and I have no mercy toward them at the moment.”

The phrase “rescued” and a coronary heart are written on a poster in Tel Aviv, Israel, displaying Luis Har, an Israeli hostage who was freed in a particular forces operation in Rafah, Gaza, Feb. 12.

Susana Vera/REUTERS

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The phrase “rescued” and a coronary heart are written on a poster in Tel Aviv, Israel, displaying Luis Har, an Israeli hostage who was freed in a particular forces operation in Rafah, Gaza, Feb. 12.

Susana Vera/REUTERS

The aftermath

To deal with life after captivity, Har is working with psychologists who suggest he not return residence but to his kibbutz on the Gaza border. He and his accomplice live quickly in a lodge.

What has given him energy is getting again to what he loves: people dancing with a dance troupe.

Har says the one approach for Israel to rescue the remaining hostages just isn’t by way of a rescue raid — which he says would endanger each troopers and captives — however by way of negotiation with Hamas, resulting in an settlement for exchanging Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners, together with these convicted of killing Israelis.

“An exchange,” Har says. “Our people for their murderers. Because even if they’re murderers, the main thing is to return all the hostages to their homes. They need to be here and be given treatment here.”