The Free Press · October 2026

I Was a Hamas Hostage for 728 Days

• Avinatan Or was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and held by Hamas for 728 days, most of it alone in a tunnel cell under Gaza.
• In September 2026 he published a Hebrew-language memoir, Through the Earth, which became a No. 1 bestseller in Israel; the excerpts are published in English for the first time here.
• In the memoir, Or describes attempting to escape by digging out of the tunnel, and says he was caught, beaten, and tortured.

Held days, abduction, and memoir details per the excerpts as presented in the original report; the escape account is the author's own.