Hostage in Gaza: Ofir's Heroic Rescue and Capture by Hamas. A Haunting Story.

HOST: JENNIFER (00:01):

Welcome to episode number 36 of the Going for Greatness Show. This episode is about a man named Ofir, who turned 27 and wanted to spend his birthday listening to music surrounded by his friends. That sounds pretty simple. This is a pretty basic request for a 27-year-old.  Ofir is now somewhere underground in the Gaza envelope. He's a hostage. Hamas took him on October 7th. He also ushered all of his friends to safety. Ofir and his friends ran barefoot for miles, miles away from the Nova Peace Festival. Somehow, Hamas grabbed him. In the next 20 minutes, you'll hear a detailed story from Ofir's best friend, a woman named Hodoya. She and I discussed what had happened and what Ofir had done to save his friend's life. We've all heard a lot of stories about what happened in Israel to innocent civilians. Here's a closeup episode from a man who, by all rights, was a hero in saving his friends. He remains a hostage. As of November 2023, there seems to be the beginning of a sprinkling of hostages being released. Calls for de-escalation are growing. Remember that the stated goal of Hamas is straightforward. It's to repeat October 7th again and again until there's destruction of all Jews and the state of Israel. And also, remember when people chant from the river to the sea, what they mean is the complete annihilation of all Jews in the state of Israel. Here is my conversation with Hodoya.

GUEST: HODAYA (01:45):

Because all of the party's people just took, took their cars. They cannot move on anymore. They decided they were leaving their cars and running on foot after three or four hours of running and hiding. They were hiding under a tree. And then they kept moving, and there was hiding inside a valley and hearing gunshots next to the ears. One gunshot almost hit their legs. They were hiding until one car showed up. They were terrified of that car because the last time they saw a car, it was a Hamas car. And then they heard the driver screaming in Hebrew: Hey, I'm here to save you. And they ran to that car.

GUEST: HODAYA (02:44):

The car was loaded already with six people.  Ofir told his girlfriend Shaval and her friend to get inside the car, and he just gave up his seat. A few seconds later, another car showed up into this. Shaval didn't wanna separate with Ofir. She tried to move the car but didn't because the driver was driving so fast.  That was the last time Ofir was seen. He called  Shival in the car. And she said that's fine; we are out of the chaos. Everything's okay. I'm gonna see you. in a few minutes.  Shavil arrived in a small town not far away, and she waited at the entrance for almost two hours. Many cars went inside, people from the party but no Ofir.  Finally, Ofir's mom called Shival and said that Ofir was injured.  

GUEST: HODAYA (04:00):

Now we know Ofir was sitting in the backseat on an open-line call with another girl named Ronie, who was on the phone with her mom.  A Hamas squad attacked the car that Ofir was riding in. Ronie's mother heard what was going on.  Ofir probably got shot and was injured. And he was screaming his mom's phone number. So Ronie's mom will call and tell her what was happening.  Ofir's phone was dead.  Then, two and a half weeks after the 7th of October, we learned more.   And we hear the phone call between Ronie and her mom, and we hear Ofir.  

GUEST: HODAYA (05:12):

It's a 25-minute call. A real battlefield. This is a tough phone call and a hard thing to listen to. And were barely speaking.  We could hear weapons; Ronie's mother listened to the whole thing.  Ofir was injured.  And with his kind heart, Ofir says to Ronie, open the door, run away, save yourself. He's trying to save her, pushing her, although he doesn't know her. And that's all we got. In the last nine minutes of this phone call, people were speaking in Arabic. You can hear the whole kidnapped moments and horrifying moments after that.  We were told the government changed Ofir's status from missing to kidnapped. We know nothing else. We don't know if he's alive.  

HOST: JENNIFER (06:32):

It's hard to unwrap all that you're sharing here. Ofir sounds like a fantastic person to relinquish his space in that first car. And in the second car, Ronie, what happened to her?  Did she run away as Ofir suggested?

GUEST: HODAYA  (06:48):

No, they were both injured. We know that Ronie got shot in her hand. She's not running away at this moment. They were both kidnapped and taken into Gaza.

HOST: JENNIFER(07:06):

Both Romi and Ofir and everybody in that car is now a hostage??

GUEST: HODAYA (07:12):

No, the two people that were in the front, the driver and the girl next to him, were murdered. This is horrible. This is terrifying. You're sitting in the back seat. The car is broken. The two people sitting in the front are dead. You're thinking to yourself,  how can I get outta this? And then you get kidnapped, and you're injured.

HOST: JENNIFER (07:38):

How scary for them and how terrifying for the mother to be on the phone, hearing RPGs, hearing Hamas terrorists in Arabic screaming and surrounding the car. Can you share -- the  Nova Party is in the middle of a desert, right? With not a lot of places to hide. Is that right?

GUEST: HODAYA (08:01):

Correct. This is an open field. Maybe a few kilometers away, there are some trees or an orchard. But this is an open field. There is nowhere to hide. That's why the people kept running to the small towns.   Our friends ran 20 kilometers from the party area, and that's how our friends came home safely. We had five people at the Nova party—my best friends. Three of them came home just by running away. This is 20 kilometers away from the party area. They were running barefoot.  Shaval came home safely because Ofir had saved her. And the Ofir calmed them down after running and hiding for four hours.  Ofir calmed everyone down.  He led them; he told them what to do. He tells them not to look around because there are a lot of bodies and injured people.  Ofir got them to a safe place. And they were already out there. This is what is so annoying, I think. And Shaval said to me: we were already outta there. We were in a car. We were supposed to meet in this small town and return home together. And it didn't happen.

HOST: JENNIFER (09:51):

Is the idea of what you've pieced together that the Hamas terrace surrounded the car, maybe on motorcycles, because the second car was moving through the desert right behind the first car?

GUEST: HODAYA (10:04):

We don't know the exact way the second driver went. We understand that this driver was driving from the party area and a bit to the north. We know where the Hamas terrorists attacked them. And this is something like 15 kilometers away from the Nova party area. Then they got stuck. They shot the car until the car couldn't move anymore. And, of course, the driver was already dead, and the girl next to him.   Ofir and Ronie tried to hide themselves as much as they could until Hamas took them.

HOST: JENNIFER (11:01):

How is the Israeli government helping to find Ofir and the other hostages?

GUEST: HODAYA (11:10):

Two excellent soldiers communicate with us, telling us everything they know. Look, we have nothing to do physically to bring Ofir home. We're a part of the Hostages Families Forum. We're coming to Tel Aviv every Saturday night.  The most important thing for the government is to bring all hostages back home. But I keep thinking if Prime Minister Bibi's son was one of the hostages, I think he would be back home on October 8th.  

HOST: JENNIFER (12:08):

How did your friends decide to go to the party in Nova? Was there any fear or concern about the location of this festival being a couple of kilometers from the border of Gaza? Did anybody worry about that?

GUEST: HODAYA (12:24):

The Nova Party tells you about the location only a few hours before the party starts. You know the approximate area but not the particular location. And Shaval told me that they put the address on WAZE.   She said to Ofir it's this few kilometers from Gaza. What if something is happening? What should we do? But no one ever thought that thing like that would ever happen. You know, when the Holocaust happened, they said never again. And never again is now --  we had another Holocaust. But it's worse for me because it's in our country. You know, when the Holocaust happened, it was in Europe when Jews were all around in Europe. They didn't have their independence and their country. And now it's in our country. And this is terrifying. It's frightening what they did to all these people in the party and the villages around Gaza, I think we can't even understand this.   No one, no one expected it.

HOST: JENNIFER (13:48):

I learned two essential things I didn't know until you told me. This Nova Party's location is revealed just a few hours before this sort of Burning Man kind of event, you know, burning Man in America. It seems like it's similar to that; ironically, at the very last minute, this event for peace was revealed so close to Gaza. If I were attending this party every year, I would assume, rightfully, that the location is safer than that. That border seemed so secure with high technology and underground fencing and monitoring. Do you feel comfortable that the IDF can secure the country? I know an ongoing rocket fire is coming in, running to the shelter. Do you feel secure in Israel today?

GUEST: HODAYA (14:45):

I don't know what happened that day because, as you said, that trip is super secure with IDF.   I'm waiting for the day after that to hear what happened there and who is responsible.  I'm living in the north; I reside in Haifa. We had maybe one or two rockets sent to here. I think in the first two weeks. I was super insecure, and I was afraid to go outside, and I was scared to get sleep. And I was fearful of anything. And I'm not that kind of girl. I am; I'm not that kind of girl.  What happened on October 7th is super scary. And I think all Israelis have that trauma no matter where they're living in Israel. And I also think around the world because antisemitism is fashionable now again.   Jews all around the world are coming into Israel and doing the aliya because this is now our safe place. You know, this is, ironically, the safe place. I trust the IDF.  Many of our friends are in the army right now, and they're telling us what they're doing and doing a fantastic job. We have the best military in the world, and I know they're doing anything to protect us. And we have no other Country to trust. I think

HOST: JENNIFER (16:32):

One of the things that's very frustrating is to know how seriously the IDF tries to protect life, protect Palestinian life by the roof knock that they drop before they bomb the reverse phone calls that they make, the leaflets now announcing clear passages, how Palestinians can exit Gaza, all of these things that they do to try to root out the Hamas terrorists and not kill innocent Palestinians. And yet, this is lost in the media outside of Israel. It's mind-blowing how frustrated you must feel.

GUEST: HODAYA (17:16):

And yeah, it's very frustrating because the other side doesn't feel sorry for killing innocent people. Kids, women, men kidnapping. I don't know. They were monsters. I don't; I don't wanna say, uh, that the idea should act like them because we can't do that, but we should act, uh, the way we, we need to work to, to protect Israel and to get Hamas outta Gaza. What's going on inside Gaza right now with IDF inside? Never happened before.  

HOST: JENNIFER (17:55):

Do you feel protected?

GUEST: HODAYA  (17:57):

We feel much more protected now. You know, the first mission is to bring all hostages back home. It's disappointing because you have no other side to negotiate with. You know, Hama is not a government; they're a terror organization, and you can't deal with them. And now, where we have this offer of bringing home 50 children and their mothers, I'm looking at it as a man's friend who is a hostage right now. And I dunno, when is he gonna come back home? These are our critical days and every day, we get a picture on the news that a hostage is dead, so every day is crucial for us. I know they're doing anything they can, but I hope they won't take this deal of 50 people because this is ridiculous. We have 240 inside Gaza. 

HOST:  JENNIFER (19:01):

If it were up to you, you would say no, go on the 50. We want everybody?

GUEST: HODAYA (19:06):

Yes. This is our message. We want them all back home because you don't get gifts for free. We don't get these 50 people for free. They want five days off of bombing; they will re-arm themself and get more fuel from Israel. 

HOST: JENNIFER (19:31):

It's fashionable to hate Jews now. Why do you think that's happening? Actually,

GUEST: HODAYA (19:36):

I don't know. The media is really against Israel. I don't know why. I think more and more young people all over the world are siding with Gaza and Hamas. I can't understand it.  They can't feel what we're feeling. They can't see what we see and what we have been through.

HOST: JENNIFER (20:01):

Is there a profile of an American college student who would have a great life in Gaza? Who would that person be? Cornell University, Harvard,  or any college student in America? Do you think they would have a good life in Gaza?

GUEST: HODAYA (20:17):

Look, in Gaza, you can't have your thoughts. You can't be gay. You can't be anything you wanna be. And if you do not support Hamas, you might be killed. We knew all these things all these years, but now when IDF, uh, got into Gaza, we, we start to understand more and more things, syllabus on and how to kill Jews.

HOST: JENNIFER (20:49):

How do they do that? And at what age?

GUEST: HODAYA (20:51):

First and second grade. In first grade, they learn it before they learn how to write. It's fundamental material for them.

HOST: JENNIFER (20:59):

Did you find books that show 5, 6, and 7-year-olds how to kill a Jew?

GUEST: HODAYA (21:05):

Yeah. And they also found books about Hitler and the Holocaust in Europe and how to clean the world from Jews, you know, all that kind of material.  No matter what age, you don't expect to see it on any school material.

HOST: JENNIFER (21:29):

In the North, there is Hezbollah, also funded by Iran. Iran supports Gaza. Iran is the giant snake.

GUEST: HODAYA (21:36):

Israel has existed for almost 76 years.  We always suffering from our enemies around us.  I was eight years old when the Second Lebanon War started. 

HOST: JENNIFER (22:02):

Iron Dome

GUEST: HODAYA (22:03):

Iron Dome protects us from rockets. A lot of soldiers gave their lives for Israel country. You know, Israel is so small. I can go to Gaza in like two hours in my car. 

HOST: JENNIFER (22:37):

If you had a message to share with the rest of the world, what is it everyone needs to know and understand about this terrorist attack on Israel?

GUEST: HODAYA (22:48):

We need the world's support right now. We need the world because we don't have the Red Cross, and the UN isn't with us. And we need the world to see the truth and the right side. Israel always defends itself. Israel never attacked without any reason. October 7th will be a terrible day for the whole world because the world may be America, maybe Europe, maybe Africa, and they might be online next. We need you to see the truth. We need you to see the actual pictures. We need you to see what happened. We need you to see and hear the stories of the people around and the no festival that day. People were, while they were, people were burned alive. This is our reality, 45 days now. I think the world should see. You need to be our ambassadors right now because we need you, and we need all of the whole world to bring all our back home and for Israel to win.

HOST: JENNIFER (23:58):

Sorry.

GUEST: HODAYA (23:59):

That's fine. We're crying every day.

HOST: JENNIFER (24:02):

It's courageous of you to come and speak to me and to share your hope for Ofir's safe return and all the hostage's safe return. And I will check back with you and see how you're doing in your search for Ofir. Thank you very much.

GUEST: HODAYA (24:17):

Thank you so much.  

HOST: JENNIFER (24:18):

Thank you for listening to episode number 36 of the Going For Greatness Show. And if you found value in this episode, please be Israel's ambassador by sharing this episode on your social media and with your friends. Remember, on October 6th, Israel was not in Gaza. It's not nuanced. It's not complicated. If Israel were to lay down their weapons, Israel would be defeated. If Hamas were to lay down their weapons, there would be peace.