The Israeli sketch comedy show “Eretz Nehederet” is famous for parodying every aspect of Israeli politics and culture. But the smiles were sincere on Wednesday night when a special guest took the stage: freed hostage Alon Ohel.
Throughout his two-year captivity, Ohel became widely known for his prowess on the piano. And earlier this year, the cast of the show sang a tribute to him with the Israeli singer Hanan Ben Ari, as part of a national campaign to keep attention on the hostages being held in Gaza.
On Wednesday’s episode, Ohel grinned as he played a rendition of Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza’s “Under the Sky.” An eyepatch covered his right eye, following an injury that was left untreated after he was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.
“We came here, from under the sky, two – like a pair of eyes, we have time, under the sky, in the meantime – we’re still here,” read the lyrics of the song, translated from Hebrew.
He was surrounded by his parents and sister as well as the show’s cast. “It was a moment the whole world had been waiting for, and not a single eye was left dry,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a post on Facebook.
Since the remaining 20 living hostages were released from Hamas captivity earlier this month as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, their emergence into public view has drawn emotional celebrations from Israelis.
On Friday, freed hostage Nimrod Cohen attended a memorial service at the Kfar Saba military cemetery for Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel, who was killed in Cohen’s unit on Oct. 7 and whose body has not yet been released during the ceasefire deal.
On Sunday, former hostages Segev Kalfon, Eitan Mor, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were met with parades as they returned to their homes after being released from Beilinson Hospital, which has shuttered its “Returning Hostages Ward.”
Some of the viral videos of the former hostages have captured their brushes with celebrity, including with Ben Ari, who sang with several of them while they were hospitalized.
Eli Sharabi, who was released in February to learn that his wife Lianne and daughters Noiya and Yahel were murdered on Oct. 7, walked the runway at Tel Aviv Fashion Week on Sunday where he was joined by the relatives of other freed hostages.
The following day, Sharabi’s brother, Yossi, who was killed in Hamas captivity in January 2024 and whose remains were returned to Israel as part of the ceasefire deal earlier this month, was buried in central Israel.
Sharabi said the funeral was “the beginning of delayed justice. Our hearts are broken but our heads are held high.”
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