From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Ex-hostage posts photo of herself, brothers in Gaza tunnel in plea for deal: ‘How much longer will you ask them to survive like this’
Agam Goldstein-Almog releases photos of her and her younger brothers when they were being held hostage in Gaza. They were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza along with their mother after their father and older sister were murdered by terrorists.
Goldstein-Almog posts the images on Instagram along with a plea for the remaining hostages to be released.
“Sitting in a tunnel in Gaza, being photographed and asking to go home,” she writes. “With tired, frightened eyes that a day earlier saw the worst things possible, and afraid of what they will see in the future.
“Today is November 3, 2024, and on this date last year I did not know that I would be released in three weeks, I did not know if I would even survive, if I would meet more hostages. I was afraid of what my eyes would see. I did not want to see more disasters, more pain.
“I will probably never be able to tell what those eyes saw. Those eyes that looked every day at the clock, waiting, not knowing why.
“Those eyes that looked closely at the hostages there. I looked into your eyes and I didn’t know it would take so long. How can we look you in the eyes? What will we say to you? What have they done to you there since we left you? Today I see you in my eyes, and I see people for whom you are not the top priority.
“I see you, and then I see your mother fighting for you wherever possible. I see two worlds and I know what you see there. Look into my eyes, lost and exhausted in the photo, and tell me that I will have to survive like this for another 51 days. I would not believe it.
“And I am angry, Because if they had released me a week earlier, I would have been saved from so much. Even one day earlier.
“So what will I say about them? Soon it will be 400 days and how much could we save them from what their eyes will see? And how much more will we put onto them with postponement and delay? Look them in the eyes, how much longer will you ask them to survive like this?”
The images appear to have been obtained by the IDF.
Chen Goldstein-Almog, 48, and three of her four children — Agam, 17, Gal, 11 and Tal, 9 — were released on November 26 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal. Her husband Nadav and eldest daughter Yam were murdered in the safe room of their home.
