"Special operation"

Hamas hostage released: Who pulled the strings

Tal Shoham, flanked by Austria's ambassador to Israel, Nikolaus Lutterotti (left), and communications expert Daniel Kapp.(Bild: Georges Schneider)

The release of the Austro-Israeli Tal Shoham from the clutches of the terrorist organization Hamas was preceded by a diplomatic "special operation". The "Krone" knows the background.

It is the highest political circles that decide on life and death, freedom or captivity. This is also the case with Tal Shoham. As reported in detail, the Austrian-Israeli dual citizen was held hostage for 505 days, spending the majority of his ordeal in the dark, narrow Hamas tunnels under the Gaza Strip.

Good contacts in the region
He was freed on February 22 as part of the hostage deal. The Austrian Federal Government under former Chancellor Karl Nehammer played a key role in this - and skillfully exploited its good contacts in the region! But one thing at a time ...

You might call it fate: Shoham only obtained his red-white-red passport a few months before his abduction on that fateful October 7, 2023. As the grandson of a Viennese woman who was expelled from her homeland by the Nazi regime, the 40-year-old's citizenship was recently restored.

Top diplomats involved
It was the well-known PR professional Daniel Kapp who drew public attention to the tragic case of the neo-Austrian from the very beginning and used his political and diplomatic contacts. And politicians immediately accepted their responsibility. Nehammer practically nominated top diplomat Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal as special envoy for the case, sending him back and forth between Washington DC, Cairo, Qatar and Tel Aviv. And: the former chancellor was in constant contact with the hostage's family.

Former Chancellor Karl Nehammer in conversation with Gilad Korngold - Tal's father - in Vienna.(Bild: Florian Schroetter)

It is therefore no coincidence that it was initially a handful of Austrian journalists to whom Shoham entrusted his story in order to tell it to the world.

Karl Nehammer and Donald Trump
When the family talks about deep gratitude, two names always come up. Karl Nehammer and Donald Trump! This is remarkable in that the family association from Kibbutz Be'eri is politically far to the left. And yet, it was "Haudrauf" Trump who put his seal of approval on the hostage deal. And it was Nehammer and his team who ensured that the name of the Austro-Israeli found its way onto the list in the first place.