Wenkert recalled that he hadn't seen another person in so long that he told them, "I need a hug. I need human contact," and that he and his fellow hostages shared everything, including "rationing their tiny food portions to avoid fights."

Wenkert recalled that Hamas terrorists came to booby-trap the room at some point, telling the four Israelis, "If the IDF comes to rescue you, we will all die together."

Wenkert was upset when he found out that he was being released, but his three companions were remaining in terror captivity.

"I can't stop thinking about them. I know what they're going through; it's unbearable," he told N12.

He described the moment that he was being released, with his hands shaking, but that "it was a victory."

He added that he did not feel humiliated by Hamas's hostage release ceremony, stating that it was "my victory. I finished the struggle. I fought, fought, fought, and won! I had a smile from ear to ear."

Wenkert recalls catching a glimpse of David and Gilboa-Dalal inside a Hamas van, "smiling faintly, waving goodbye" and that "the small smile was everything."

Since his return, Wenkert has just one dream: to "build a family and become a father." However, first, he said he would "not rest until every hostage is home."

Omer Wenkert was 22 when Hamas abducted him from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, and he was released on February 22, 2025, along with Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen.

Wenkert suffers from an autoimmune disease, colitis, which causes ulcers to appear in the digestive tract, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In the moments leading up to his capture, Omer texted his parents that he was “scared to death.”

His family was informed hours after his abduction after Hamas posted a video of the young Omer strapped to a pickup truck in his underwear. Images later circulated showing Omer lying on the ground in Gaza.

Before being abducted, Omer was employed at the restaurant Nina Bianca, and he aspired to one day become a restaurant critic. He was enrolled to begin study at Shenkar College to study a restaurant management course - a dream paused by his captors.

In August 2024, it was announced that the Wenkert family's boutique wine marketing business had run into financial difficulties, and there was a mass mobilization calling to help the family.

The Knesset Workers's Committee and the Knesset's administration announced on August 15 that a special joint collaboration with the Wenkert family to purchase 1,200 cases of wine from their business in a project called "To the Life of Omer and for his return."

Danielle Greyman-Kennard and Bentzi Rubin contributed to this report.