5 female soldiers released from Hamas captivity are serenaded with concert in hospital

The five Israel Defense Forces surveillance soldiers recently released after 15 months in captivity in Gaza attended a concert given in their honor Tuesday at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where they are being treated.

Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Agam Berger, and Liri Albag watched as the musicians played a number of songs including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

The orchestra also played “Happy Birthday” for Albag, who turned 20 on Tuesday.

The concert was organized by Lu Yihi (Let it Be), a volunteer mental health organization that seeks to provide relief for those who have been traumatized by the war.

The soldiers are set to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, the Kan public broadcaster reported without citing sources. According to the report, the soldiers were offered the chance to spend some time at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in nearby Ramat Gan, but chose to return to their homes.

All five soldiers were abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, when the terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists in an invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The attackers abducted 251 people, also mostly civilians, as hostages to the Gaza Strip.

מתחבקות ומתרגשות: לירי, קרינה, דניאלה, נעמה ואגם השתתפו מרחוק בקונצרט שהתקיים בבית החולים בילינסון, מטעם המיזם החברתי המוזיקלי "לו יהי", שנערך לכבודן@YoavBorowitz pic.twitter.com/b4E1SZdccM

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 4, 2025

Seven surveillance soldiers were abducted from the Nahal Oz base: Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF in October 2023; Noa Marciano, who was killed in captivity; and Ariev, Gilboa, Albag, and Levy, who were freed five days before Berger. During the October 7 attack, 15 surveillance soldiers were slain in Nahal Oz.

Since the start of the current ceasefire-hostage release deal last month, 13 Israelis and five Thai hostages have been freed from Hamas captivity. An additional 20 Israelis are slated to be released over the coming weeks, although Israel has said it believes eight of them are no longer alive.

Clockwise, from top left: Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy, Agam Berger and Liri Albag, who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)

Seventy-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.