Segev Kalfon, 27, was held for two years in a 2‑square‑meter tunnel in Gaza where he endured starvation, disease and repeated torture before his release on Oct. 13 as part of a U.S.‑brokered ceasefire. Now home in Dimona, he faces a long recovery that includes medical and psychological care and coping with severe post‑traumatic stress. Faith and small ritual practices sustained him and fellow captives through their imprisonment. Kalfon has become a public figure and wants to share his experience to counter rising antisemitism and disbelief about the hostages' ordeal.
Freed After Two Years Underground: Israeli Hostage Segev Kalfon Rebuilds His Life
Segev Kalfon, an Israeli hostage who spent two years in captivity in a Hamas tunnel and was released from the Gaza Strip in a ceasefire deal on Oct. 13, looks on at his home in Dimona, southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
DIMONA, Israel — Segev Kalfon, 27, was freed from two years of captivity in Gaza on Oct. 13 and is now trying to rebuild a life marked by severe physical and emotional trauma. His memories have shifted from imagining leisurely supermarket aisles during captivity to reliving the cramped, 2‑square‑meter (22‑square‑foot) cell in a Hamas tunnel where he and five others were held.
Survival in a Tiny Underground Cell
During his confinement, Kalfon said the days blurred into an endless stretch broken only by a meager ration of food and scarce water. He described repeated physical beatings, the use of bicycle chains and heavy rings that left painful welts, and the constant threat of bombardment while buried roughly 30 meters underground. He also suffered illnesses — including COVID — with no access to medicine. At his thinnest, he said, each vertebra in his spine was visible.
Segev Kalfon, an Israeli hostage who spent two years in captivity in a Hamas tunnel and was released from the Gaza Strip in a ceasefire deal on Oct. 13, looks on at his home in Dimona, southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
“I was in the lowest place a person can be before death. I had no control over anything — when to eat, when to shower, how much I want to eat,” Kalfon said.
Life Before and After Capture
Before he was seized at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, Kalfon worked in his family’s bakery in Arad and studied finance and investments. He and a friend tried to help others escape when the festival was attacked; he later learned people he urged to flee were killed. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages during the cross-border assault, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent offensive has led to a large number of deaths in Gaza; the Gaza Health Ministry — part of the Hamas-run administration — reports more than 71,000 dead without distinguishing between civilians and combatants.
Faith, Small Rituals and Radio Signals
Faith played a crucial role for Kalfon and his family. They turned to Jewish prayers and ritual objects during the ordeal, and the hostages improvised rituals in the tunnel: saying prayers over a bit of water and moldy pita, and fashioning a prayer skullcap from a tiny square of toilet paper that had to be rationed among six people for months. The captors provided a radio with Quran recordings; at times it picked up Israeli broadcasts. Once, when he was contemplating an escape that would likely have meant death, Kalfon heard his mother’s voice on the radio — a moment he took as a sign to keep holding on.
Segev Kalfon, an Israeli hostage who spent two years in captivity in a Hamas tunnel and was released from the Gaza Strip in a ceasefire deal on Oct. 13, steps out of his home in Dimona, southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Release and Recovery
Kalfon was freed along with 19 other living hostages as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Since returning home to Dimona in southern Israel, he has become a public figure: his image and name were broadcast widely during campaigns for the captives’ release. He says he does not see himself as a hero, only as someone who survived.
Recovery is ongoing. Kalfon is attending numerous medical and psychological appointments and has a preexisting diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. He described nights filled with nightmares and flashbacks, and that even small noises can trigger severe startle responses. “Although the war in Gaza is over, now my war is starting with my soul,” he said.
Segev Kalfon, an Israeli hostage who spent two years in captivity in a Hamas tunnel and was released from the Gaza Strip in a ceasefire deal on Oct. 13, reads from a holy book on at his home in Dimona, southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Speaking Out
Kalfon wants to share his story more widely. He has been disturbed by what he describes as a rise in global antisemitism and anti‑Israel sentiment since his abduction and wants to ensure that those who doubted or dismissed the hostages’ plight understand it happened. “I’m proof that it happened. I felt it with my body. I saw it with my own eyes,” he said.
Note: Casualty and hostage figures are drawn from public statements and ministry reports cited in contemporaneous coverage. The Gaza Health Ministry’s totals do not distinguish civilians and combatants; U.N. agencies and independent experts generally treat those records as detailed but contextualize them with other data sources.
Associated Press writer Sam Mednick contributed from Tel Aviv.
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