Freed hostage Omer Wenkert tells Netanyahu: "Don't look away"

Omer Wenkert, who was released from captivity by the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, appealed this evening (Saturday night) to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the cabinet ministers: "Be brave and invite me to tell you up close what my captive brothers are going through at this very moment."

In his speech at Hostages' Square, Wenkert added, "My brothers and sisters, I was brought back to life about a month and a half ago. I stand here emotional and crying out, bring my brothers back from captivity. But I’m not really here; only half of me is standing here. Part of me is still captive in a tunnel, and you’re not really here either, because part of us, part of all of us, is captive in Gaza."

He added: "Like the rest of my brothers who returned, I am currently undergoing a process of physical and emotional rehabilitation. I know my true rehabilitation will come when my beloved brothers Guy and Aviya board an Air Force helicopter, step into the room where their loved ones await them, and are back home in Israel."

Omer recounted: "In captivity, I was held in extreme conditions in a narrow tunnel next to a waste pit. For 505 days, I was starved, humiliated, and beaten. For 197 of those days, I was alone, nearly losing my sanity."

"Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu," he appealed: "It’s on you to bring them back! It’s only on you to return them home! Remember that these are my brothers, our brothers, and it’s on you, only on you, that they’ll be home!

"I call from here to the cabinet members and the Prime Minister to invite me to the next cabinet meeting and look into my eyes as I bear witness. I call on you: don’t look away! Be brave and invite me to tell you up close what my captive brothers are going through at this very moment."

In a related development, Hamas released a sign of life today from hostages Bar Kuperstein and Maxim Herkin. The families requested that the footage not be published.