Guy Gilboa-Dalal was enjoying the Nova Music Festival with his brother Gal, spending quality time together before Gilboa-Dalal’s upcoming two-month trip to Japan. Shortly after the festival in Re’im started, Hamas invaded, forcing the brothers to flee minutes apart in two different vehicles.
While Gal was able to escape, his brother was captured, and the same day, Hamas released footage of Gilboa-Dalal tied up in a tunnel in Gaza.
”We left the festival in two separate cars, a few minutes apart. We ended up in different places in the huge traffic jam at the exit. We were separated during the volleys of fire,” Gal recounted through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum website. “ It took me seven and a half hours to get out. Seven and a half hours of running and hiding, shooting everywhere and my brother isn’t answering.”
The Maccabi Haifa football fan has now spent two years in Hamas captivity, away from his programming studies and Japanese lessons.
Subjected to psychological and physical torture in Hamas captivity
As part of the psychological torture Gilboa-Dalal suffered in Hamas captivity, terrorists forced him and his friend Evyatar David to watch the release of Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed after being promised their freedom.
Gal also told Ynet “One of the guards told them there was a deal and that they’d get food the next day. The next day he said he lied—there was no deal and no food.”
Beyond psychological abuse, Gal said that on one occasion, his brother was forced to crawl on all fours and bark like a dog as guards beat him.
Released hostage Tal Shoham told Channel 12 in July that Gilboa-Dalal and David were suffering in “horrific” conditions from malnutrition and were subjected to intense physical abuse.
The pair had been bound and forced to sit facing a wall with black sacks over their heads for extended periods and denied access to water.
Shoham said that Gilboa-Dalal confessed to drinking dirty water from a barrel used to flush the toilet when the guards weren’t looking, just to quench his thirst after he was left so dehydrated he was unable to speak.
"They filmed us constantly. From what I understood, there was also an explosive device next to the camera, aimed at us – so it would take out everything in the tunnel if the IDF tried to rescue us,” Shoham explained. "The guards operated like a military unit – without empathy – and that allowed them to abuse us in ways that would have been harder to do above ground."
“Their mental state deteriorated badly – they couldn't sleep, and when they did, it was for long stretches,” he shared. “At times, they completely shut down. Guy once went an entire week without saying a word. It felt like they couldn't survive even one more day."
Gilboa-Dalal and David’s families also told Channel 12 that they had received information on the dire conditions their loved ones were being kept in.
Gilboa-Dalal is reportedly suffering from a severe ear infection, which has cost him hearing in the ear and on the occasions they are provided food, it is in complete darkness so they cannot see what they are being fed.
The families also said the men were only allowed to shower once a month with a bucket.