With hostage's return, Ori Danino’s final act of heroism is complete

On October 7, as Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel, Ori Danino was close to escaping the Nova music festival when he made a fateful decision. He and a friend had fled toward their respective cars, but before leaving, Danino turned back. He sent a message to his friend, asking for the phone numbers of siblings Maya and Itay Regev and of Omer Shem Tov — people he had met just hours earlier.

אורי דנינו, איתי רגב, מיה רגב, עומר שם טוב

“This is not the time to be a hero,” his friend told him. But Danino insisted: “I’ll be fine. I need to bring them home.”

Danino managed to find the Regev siblings and Shem Tov, but their vehicle was intercepted by Hamas gunmen, and all four were taken hostage in Gaza. Maya and Itay Regev were freed in a hostage deal in November 2023. Danino was among six hostages who were killed in a Hamas tunnel in September.

On Saturday, with the release of Shem Tov, Danino’s mission was considered complete — he had saved all three. A post on an Instagram page dedicated to Danino’s memory simply read: “Ori, you did it.”

“We feel a sense of closure and are happy for Omer,” Ori’s father, Rabbi Elhanan Danino, told Ynet.

“We know Ori wouldn’t have acted any differently — that’s just who he was. When we first heard what he had done, we weren’t surprised. That was Ori. He once told me that giving his life for the country would be his greatest honor. We know he went back knowingly. We live with immense pain, but when we think about what he wanted in life, we understand that he always put others before himself. My comfort, at least as a man of faith, is that this was his choice.”

The Danino family has not yet spoken to Shem Tov. “I believe that when things settle, we’ll have a very emotional meeting,” Elhanan said. “We are in close and good contact with his parents. We’ll let time take its course. We want him to return to a normal life, at least for his family. We won’t pressure him, we won’t demand answers. Of course, we care deeply, but his life and his family come first.”

עומר שם טוב יחד עם הוריו, שלי ומלכי, בדרכם לבית החולים

Speaking at a hospital on Sunday night, Omer’s mother, Sheli Shem Tov, paid tribute to Danino.

“I want to acknowledge and honor Ori Danino, who, on October 7, went back into the inferno to save Maya and Itay Regev and my son, Omer,” she said. “Ori had only met them a few hours earlier, yet he didn’t think of himself or his own family, who raised him with the values of mutual responsibility and never leaving anyone behind. Ori survived 11 months in captivity under inhumane conditions and was murdered by Hamas monsters. He is the hero and guardian angel of Maya, Itay, and Omer.”

As the first phase of the latest hostage deal nears its scheduled conclusion on Thursday, many hostages remain in captivity, still waiting to come home.

“Every day there is another day when murder could take place,” Elhanan Danino said. “No one has the right to force more families in Israel into mourning. Stop calling this ‘Phase I’ or ‘Phase II’—just continue Phase I until it’s finished! There are no phases when it comes to saving lives. It must happen immediately. You can’t tell the hostages to wait for one phase or another. Every day is an eternity. Every minute is an eternity. That’s why they must be brought home now. Families are breaking apart, and the children — what they’ve endured is horrific. The government hasn’t done enough, that’s clear. The only ones making this happen are the Americans. Without Trump — before he even took office — Israel’s government wouldn’t have understood how precious human life is.”

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