Bar Kupershtein smiled and laughed as if he hadn’t spent the past two years in what he described as “hell”, a demeanor that belied his time in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
“I like to take things with humor and laughter, be happy with my family, and look forward rather than backward,” the 23-year-old security guard, who was abducted from the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023, told CNN hours before boarding a plane to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.
It was the same determination that kept him on the scene during the terrorist attacks and helped injured partygoers until he was ultimately shot dead and kidnapped by Hamas. He says that even though he has endured great hardships, he would do exactly the same thing again.
“I had a responsibility to ensure the safety of all partygoers,” he said. “If I had run away and saved myself, knowing that other people were there and I could have helped them, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.” Survivors called him a hero. “I was just doing my job,” he insists.
This decision took 738 days.
“I count each day in my head and that’s how I keep myself busy,” he told CNN. At first, he recalls, he was blindfolded, forbidden to speak, and counting was his only activity. Days turned into weeks, then months, then two years.
“There were moments when they tried to execute us, starve us, and take away our basic human conditions through beatings and physical and verbal abuse,” he says. “You feel like the most miserable person in the world.”
Kupershtein, who was held underground with five other hostages in what he described as a “small dungeon”, recalled a particularly violent period following comments from far-right Israeli Minister of State Security Itamar Ben Gvir regarding Palestinian prisoners. “They came to us and beat us and beat us. And when we asked why, they said it was Ben Gvir’s fault, it was our government’s fault,” he said.
In April 2025, Hamas released a propaganda video showing Kuperstein and another hostage, Maxim Harkin, looking haggard and in pain, begging to be taken home. “All I was thinking about was making sure my family knew I was alive. That’s all,” he said. “I didn’t care what they told me to say. I said everything just so my family could see me speaking safely and sanely.”
Throughout that hell, Kuperstein says his faith was what sustained him.
“God gave me the strength to be strong. I believed in my heart that I would get out safely,” he said. “From day one, I had emotions inside me. I kept telling myself to not give up and stay strong for my family, because one day I would get out and go back to being a lawyer. I told myself it couldn’t get any worse than this. So persevere.”
His faith grew even stronger in captivity.
“I wasn’t very religious before, just traditional, but in captivity I really connect with God and talk to Him. God saved me more than once or twice. Every day I stayed alive was a miracle.”
In captivity, Kuperstein had little contact with the outside world, only occasionally becoming aware of what was happening. Yet that was often what his captors wanted him to know.
But a radio transmitter brought in to broadcast Quranic verses to the hostages gave them an unexpected connection to the outside world.
Kupershtein managed to find an Israeli military radio station and get updates from home. “I remember waking up every morning and watching the radio, waiting to hear it,” he says. “It’s truly a miracle. Imagine listening to the radio 30 meters (98 feet) underground.”
From that radio, he heard about his family’s efforts to secure his release. Kupershtein’s father, Tal, is a former volunteer paramedic with United Hazara, Israel’s largest volunteer emergency medical services organization. He suffered a severe stroke in a motorcycle accident three years before his abduction. As a result of the accident, Barr, the eldest of five children and the breadwinner of the family, began working as a security guard at events in addition to running a falafel stand. He also followed in his father’s footsteps and volunteered as a paramedic.
While her son was incarcerated, Tal, who was in a wheelchair and unable to speak for years, underwent intensive recovery efforts with speech therapists to regain the ability to speak so she could advocate for her son’s freedom.
“I sometimes saw my father at demonstrations, and he even brought me pictures of him standing at demonstrations,” Kuperstein says. “I also heard that my mother planned my birthday at Hostage Square.”
He did not believe until the last moment that he would be released. “There were so many deals that didn’t go through that we thought there was going to be another deal that didn’t go through and something was going to fall apart,” he said. “Even on the way home, I couldn’t believe I could actually go outside.”
He is now heading to the Oval Office, where the US president has invited all 20 newly freed hostages. Kuperstein, who calls President Trump a “messenger of God,” plans to thank him first and foremost. “God told us we needed to get out of there, and he was that messenger,” he says. “He played a big role in us getting out of there.”
Mr. Kuperstein is evaluated when asked whether he believes in peace. “Personally, I’ve been there for the past two years, and I know that the other side is not really interested in peace. So, no matter how much the country wants peace, I don’t think that can happen with Hamas.”
He described himself as an “upgraded version” of his former self and said it was a daily dream to return to Israel.
“I’m excited every day to wake up here in the morning and be alive and breathing and not in a tunnel,” he said. “I thank God every day for this.”
Yet, beneath the smiles and laughter, he admitted that the scars remain.
“Of course, there are times when I can’t sleep at night because I’m thinking about something difficult or just want to go outside for some fresh air,” he admits. “Sometimes I find myself in a situation where everyone around me seems happy, but I’m just being normal and that’s not true happiness.”
He said, “I try to surround myself with a loving and supportive environment so that I don’t get into that situation and just be happy. That’s part of it and I believe it will heal.”
