{"id":287258,"date":"2026-07-05T12:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/287258\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:42:08","slug":"alon-ohel-honors-hostages-at-fourth-of-july-event-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/287258\/","title":{"rendered":"Alon Ohel honors hostages at Fourth of July event in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freed hostage Alon Ohel, who spent over two years in Hamas captivity, performed at a celebration of freedom at a US Independence Day event on July 4<\/a>, marking the country\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n

Ohel, a pianist, accompanied musician John Ondrasik, better known as Five for Fighting, aboard the USS Nimitz, a nuclear-powered supercarrier, in New York Harbor.<\/p>\n

They played \u201cSuperman,\u201d one of Ondrasik\u2019s biggest hits, before an audience that included senior military personnel and government officials, among them the US ambassador to the United Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The song includes the lyrics: \u201cEven heroes have the right to bleed\/I may be disturbed, but won\u2019t you concede\/Even heroes have the right to dream.\u201d Ondrasik, an outspoken supporter of Israel, recorded a new version of the 25-year-old song to honor the hostages taken by Hamas<\/a>. Not long after the song\u2019s original release, it was used as a tribute to the victims of the 9\/11 terror attack by al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

Ohel looked relaxed and happy during the performance, but a bureaucratic snafu nearly prevented his arrival in the US. When he flew into New York, he was still listed in the government computer as a hostage, and the matter had to be clarified with the Israeli consulate, according to a report in Ynet. More than a year ago, another freed hostage, Liri Albag, faced a similar security issue in New York when she flew to the Big Apple for a family vacation.<\/p>\n

Ohel<\/a>, a pianist who was planning to continue his music studies when he was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, was released on October 13, 2025, and spent a total of 737 days in captivity. He suffered severe injuries during his abduction that went untreated and spent much of his time in captivity in a tunnel, chained by his leg. There were fears that, due to injuries to his eye, he would lose his vision, and he has undergone several surgeries since returning home.<\/p>\n

During his captivity, his family started a campaign to raise awareness of his condition, and the slogan \u201cAlon You Are Not Alone\u201d was inscribed on pianos in Israel and around the world.<\/p>\n

In February 2026, Ohel performed \u201cYesh Li Sikui\u201d (I Have a Chance) by Eviatar Banai at a concert to raise funds for his rehabilitation. He dedicated the song to fellow former hostage Eli Sharabi, who was attending the concert. The two developed a strong bond while they were held in Gaza, and each credited the other for encouraging him to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freed hostage Alon Ohel, who spent over two years in Hamas captivity, performed at a celebration of freedom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109896,40550,59,3595,2538,9,11,10,15357],"class_list":["post-287258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-eli-sharabi","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-hamas","tag-hostage","tag-music","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-the-october-7-massacre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}