American hostage finds healing through music after Hamas captivity
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Sagui Dekel-Chen, an American Israeli man, performed a concert in his hometown of Nir Oz, Israel, after being held hostage by Hamas for nearly 500 days.
Dekel-Chen was kidnapped during the October 7th attacks on Nir Oz, a kibbutz where over 40 residents were killed and 70 taken hostage. While in captivity, he created songs in his mind to maintain hope and cope with the harsh conditions, believing his family might be dead.
These songs became a way for Dekel-Chen to preserve his mental state, crafting imagined bedtime routines for his daughters as a form of self-preservation. He was released in February 2025 as part of a prisoner swap and later recorded the songs he composed during his captivity from memory. The concert in Nir Oz marked a turning point for Dekel-Chen’s family, especially his daughters, who had associated the kibbutz with trauma.
Seeing their father perform on the lawn where they once played allowed them to reclaim their home and begin to heal, demonstrating the power of resilience and the importance of family connection after immense hardship.
