Hostage families release photos of 5 female soldiers from early days of captivity
Relatives of IDF observation troops kidnapped from Nahal Oz base on October 7 beg Netanyahu not to depart for Washington before signing a hostage release deal
The families of five hostage surveillance soldiers released images on Tuesday evening from the young women’s first days in captivity in Gaza, demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for the hostages’ release.
In one undated image, Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger and Daniella Gilboa can be seen sitting on mattresses on the floor of a room. Ariev and Gilboa both appear to have bandages on their heads.
They are wearing clothes, some with bloodstains, that were apparently given to them by their captors. Bottles of water are shown on the floor, in a room that is apparently above ground in Gaza. They show signs of being injured and of marks left by handcuffs. A framed picture of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is on the wall behind them.
In a separate undated image, Naama Levy is seen with a heavily swollen eye and cuts on her face.
All five are still held by Hamas in the Strip after they were kidnapped by terrorists from the Nahal Oz base on October 7. Hamas killed 52 soldiers at the base, including 15 female surveillance officers, and kidnapped 10 soldiers in total.
The photos are taken from a Hamas video retrieved by the IDF during operations in Gaza and first shown to the families by the IDF spokesman a few months ago. In the video, which has not been made public, one of the Hamas captors is seen, a Channel 12 report said.
At a press conference unveiling the images, the parents of the five soldiers were overcome with emotion. Shira Albag, the mother of Liri, held up a baby doll, symbolizing the possibility that the women were raped and impregnated in captivity.
Her husband, Eli Albag, felt unwell and was taken away from the press conference for medical care.
Yoni Levy, the father of Naama, told the press conference that his daughter was held separately from her comrades.
“She wasn’t captured with the other girls, as we saw in the video with the jeep,” he said. “Naama was held for a long period by herself.”
Levy said the “latest information we have” is that Naama is “held in the tunnels and she is alive… therefore the only way to get her and the other girls out of the tunnels is a deal,” he added. “Not a military operation or anything else — only a deal will get the girls out.”
Levy was seen in a video from Gaza on October 7 following her kidnapping with her hands tied and bloodied sweatpants being forced into the back of a jeep, giving rise to widespread speculation that she had been sexually assaulted by her abductors.
The families also juxtaposed the newly publicized pictures of the five with photographs of them as they were before being taken hostage by Hamas-led terrorists who invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The parents of the soldiers begged Netanyahu to reach a hostage release deal before he departs for Washington next week ahead of his Wednesday address at the US Capitol.
“Mr. prime minister, this is a personal appeal to you, first, close the deal! Then you can travel safely and return safely,” said Shlomi Berger, the father of Agam. “This is not the time for trips when your presence here, at the most critical time for our country, is essential.”
Ayelet Levy Shachar, the mother of Naama, said she refused a request from Netanyahu to accompany him on the trip.
“The prime minister asked me to join him on his flight to the US for his speech to Congress, and I explained that I cannot and will not feel comfortable joining him until I see that the negotiations regarding my Naama’s release are completed,” she said. “This is not the time for trips [to the US]. This is the time to close a deal and return the hostages.”
Albert Ariev, the father of Karina, said the newly released images were painful and “vivid — Karina sitting on a mattress on the floor, with an exhausted and desperate look.”
“She has a shocking bandage on her head with dried blood. On her leg, you can see fresh blood stains seeping into her pajama pants,” he said, begging for a deal to be made. “The agreement currently on the table is the closest we’ve ever been. Since the morning of October 7. All we ask is for Karina back; we want our small family to be whole again.”
PM meets bereaved Nahal Oz parents
Separately, Netanyahu met Tuesday with the families of those observation soldiers who were killed on October 7 at the same IDF base. Netanyahu’s office said following the meeting that he told the families of the slain soldiers that the entire incident would be “thoroughly investigated.” However, the families demanded a state commission of inquiry during the three-hour meeting, something to which the prime minister refuses to commit.
Erez Price, whose daughter, Staff Sgt. Noa Price, was killed at Nahal Oz, said the families are insisting on a commission of inquiry. Eyal Eshel, the father of slain soldier Sgt. Roni Eshel, said after the meeting that Netanyahu “sat and listened to us.” He added that they were given two promises — that the command center in which many of the soldiers were killed will be maintained as a memorial, and that the memorial at Kibbutz Alumim will be kept up by the state.
Netanyahu’s office said that during the meeting with the families the prime minister “answered their questions and said the matter will be investigated thoroughly, and lessons will be learned at all levels, including the intelligence, operational, military and diplomatic realms.”
In May, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum released harrowing footage showing the abduction of the five female soldiers from the Nahal Oz base on October 7, describing the video as a “damning testament to the nation’s failure to bring home the hostages.”
The video was taken by body cameras worn by Hamas terrorists that day as they attacked the base near the Gaza border.
Another observation soldier, Cpl. Ori Megidish, was kidnapped from the base on October 7 and rescued by IDF troops a few weeks later. Cpl. Noa Marciano, who was also kidnapped that day, was later killed in Gaza and her body recovered by the military in November.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have been working to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of the hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners and a ceasefire in the ongoing war, which began on October 7 when Hamas led a devastating attack that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 abducted to Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday, demonstrators demanding the government secure a deal to bring back the 116 hostages held since October 7 blocked the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv.
The protesters, many of them relatives of those held in Gaza, held a banner depicting the faces of the hostages with the statement, “He who abandoned them must return them.”
Blocking the busy thoroughfare at Hashalom Interchange on the southbound highway, the protesters chanted, “Stop the world, our children and parents are there.”
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — including the remains of 42 who have been confirmed dead by the IDF — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.
Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
