Alon Ohel is a musician loving life with big plans for the future before he was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, his mother, Idit Ohel, told Zvika Klein and Sarah Ben-Nun on The Jerusalem Post Podcast.
"He's a beautiful person, a wonderful friend, just loving life," she said of her son, who turned 23 back in February. "He knew how to be a good friend, to just be happy and try to make people feel good about himself."
Ohel spoke about her son's life before being taken hostage.
"He just got back a month and a half before he was kidnapped from traveling all over Asia," she said. "He was just thinking about what he wanted to learn, to study, where he wanted to live. He was planning to live in Tel Aviv and studying music.
"His friends always say he's the glue that sticks them together," she continued. "He's really helpful. And at home, he was always smiling. You can never find a picture where he's not smiling."
Fighting for her son's freedom from Hamas
Since her son was taken captive at the Supernova music festival in Re'im, Idit Ohel, a teacher by profession, has found herself doing something she never imagined herself doing: being active in the media and meeting world leaders.
Despite this unexpected turn of events, Ohel continues on.
"I guess I chose to be out there to save my son," she explained. "I do it because I have to. I do it because I feel people need to know about him and about what happened. So that's why we are always with the media doing whatever we can so as many people will know.
"As time goes by, you learn and you understand that this is something that you have to do, that this is something that will help in some way to make sure that he is not forgotten, and that all the other hostages aren't."
This is especially important because after one year in captivity, many feel there isn't much time left to save the remaining 101 hostages.
"The hostages, especially the ones that are still alive, don't have time," Ohel said. "We need to bring them home as soon as possible."
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