Avinatan Or escaped his Hamas captors in Gaza by digging his way out of a tunnel, but was later found and beaten for days, he told an audience at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.

“My engineering background saved me. I count in steps. I collected data. I built a small [lightbulb] from broken cables. I planned an escape route in my head. I told myself, ‘You will not let others decide your destiny,’ and I tried to escape,” Or related from a podium, standing next to Noa Argamani, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal—all former Hamas captives.

“I dug for weeks through sand bags through a collapsed tunnel toward the surface. I made myself work to change my own destiny. One day, as I was digging, I hit the root of a tree. I smelled it.

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