Avi Ochana, whose son Yosef-Chaim appeared in a Hamas-released video yesterday, described the emotional moment he learned about the footage.
“I was in the middle of praying and the phone started to ring, both from the army and from my family. It made me nervous, but I decided to finish my prayers,” he recounted in a conversation with Radio Kol Chai.
Ochana expressed the pain of not having seen his son in nearly six months. “We haven’t seen Yosef-Haim since October 7th,” he said. “We knew he was alive because Ohad Ben Ami, who was released in November, was with him and Elkana Bohbot in the same tunnel.”
He dismissed the video as a calculated tactic by Hamas. “All these videos are psychological warfare. My son is not a person who would put his hands on his face and cry. This is not my son. Even when he calls out ‘Ohad, Ohad’ at the end, you can see that it’s staged. On the other hand, it is clear that they are in a dire situation. You can see that his body and face are scrawny.”
In a heartbreaking revelation, Ochana shared a past tragedy in his family. “One of our children died fourteen years ago, when he was seven-and-a-half years old. But the situation now is more difficult than burying a child. Every time I eat, I ask my son for forgiveness, because he doesn’t have food.”
He also opened up about the toll this ordeal has taken on his day-to-day life. “I cannot sleep at night without sleeping pills. I spend the nights praying. I dream about him almost every night; that he is released and the family is happy. And then I wake up and say to myself, ‘it’s a pity that reality isn’t like a dream’.”
Recalling his son’s actions on the day of the Hamas attack, Ochana described Yosef-Chaim’s courage. “He could have escaped, but he told his friends, ‘I don’t desert wounded people on the ground.’ He stood in front of cars traveling toward the enemy to stop them. He literally gave his life to save others.”
He concluded with an appeal to the public: to daven for the safe return of his son and all those still being held hostage.
{Matzav.com Israel}The post Hostage’s Father In Chilling Statement: ‘It’s Harder Than Burying A Child’ first appeared on Matzav.com.