Released hostage Alon Ohel appeared at the end of the satirical comedy show “Eretz Nehederet” for a moment of sincerity, playing the piano as the cast sang David Broza’s “Under the Sky.”.
Throughout his two-year captivity, Ohel became widely known for his prowess on the piano. After the abduction, the slogan “Alon You Are Not Alone” spread widely and was inscribed on pianos across Israel and abroad. His family placed his piano at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv as part of the campaign by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. The project later expanded to around 30 “yellow pianos” worldwide, dedicated to raising awareness of the hostages’ plight.
Host Eyal Kitzis noted that having Ohel with them closed the circle from eight months earlier, when singer and performer Hanan Ben Ari joined the “Eretz Nehederet” cast to sing a song for Ohel, a budding pianist who was held hostage for two years and freed earlier this month along with 19 other surviving captives.
Ohel, wearing a patch on his right eye due to untreated injuries he sustained during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, grinned from time to time during the performance, particularly when his parents and sister joined him and the cast onstage.
The piano was adorned with a yellow sign that said, “Alon, You’re Not Alone.” Nine months earlier, singer Hanan Ben Ari got together with the show’s beloved cast to sing the song “Shemesh,” “Sun,” in Alon’s honor. During that performance, the words “Alon, You’re Not Alone” were on top of the piano. The yellow sign was also on that piano in Hostages Square.
The song, composed by David Broza with lyrics by Meir Ariel, was especially poignant:
“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.
Night and day (x3) and the smile apologizes for his laziness.
We came here… We are one (x3) one complete unit together perfect and great.
Come let’s give (x3) I will let you give. Let me give to you/let you.
We came here…
Despite the gap despite the pain despite the regret I love and love and love….”
David Broza actually played the piano to honor the still-captive Alon at a rally in NYC 100 days after October 7. The room was full of love indeed, with “We Were the Lucky Ones” actor Lior Ashkenazi, who often appears on the show as different political characters, and who spoke often at rallies for the hostages, hugging Kobi, Alon’s father. Alon kept a serious face until Eli Finish, one of the cast members, kissed the top of his head, and then he broke into a little self-conscious smile.
Members of the “Eretz Nehederet” cast hugged the Ohels and embraced the freed hostage as he played. 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.
Alon Ohel, a 24-year-old Israeli-Serbian pianist born on February 10, 2001, was kidnapped by Hamas during the Nova music festival massacre on October 7, 2023, and was held hostage in the Gaza Strip for 737 days until his release on October 13, 2025, as part of the United States-brokered Gaza peace plan between Israel and Hamas.
On the morning of the attack, Ohel and 26 others took refuge in what later became known as the “Death Shelter” at the Re’im junction. After prolonged fighting by the festival-goers, Hamas gunmen entered the shelter and abducted Ohel along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levi and Elia Cohen, all of whom were wounded to varying degrees. According to testimonies from released hostages, including Eli Sharabi and Elia Cohen, Ohel was injured during the attack by shrapnel that struck his eye, causing the loss of vision in one eye and possible severe damage to the other
After his release from Hamas captivity, Ohel was discharged from Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva and returned to his home in Lavon, northern Israel, on October 24, 2025, marking the first time he returned to his hometown since his abduction. When asked when and if he would return to playing the piano, Ohel responded that he is slowly easing himself back into his life’s passion. “We’re working on it,” he said.
“It’s important for me to say that all this love also reached 50 meters underground in Gaza. I felt it every moment,” Ohel told crowds who welcomed him home.
