Freed soldiers tell family they deliberately projected strength at handover; are anxious for Agam Berger’s return

The four hostages released earlier today have told their families that they determinedly showed Hamas, during the staged event the terror group had arranged for their handover, that they would not be humiliated, according to reports of their initial conversations on tonight’s TV news.
The four walked to the stage set up in a square in Gaza City calmly and confidently, and smiled and waved to the crowds of Hamas gunmen and Gazans.
“We showed them on the stage that we were not fazed” by the intended humiliation, Kan TV news quotes one of them as telling family and friends. “It had no impact on us. We are stronger than them.”
Channel 12 reported, unsourced, earlier this evening that Israel’s security chiefs, watching their release, were extremely concerned that Hamas had planned a grandiose propaganda event that might get out of control, and that the soldiers’ confident behavior “turned humiliation into victory.”

The four have said that they were held together with a fifth surveillance soldier, Agam Berger, until a few days before their release and that it was very hard for them when they realized that Berger was not being freed with them. They greatly look forward to seeing her next week, they said, according to Channel 12 news.
Kan says they told IDF soldiers today to make sure the deal did not stop until all hostages are freed.
Kan reports them saying that Liri Albag was the leader of their group, and spoke to the terrorists on their behalf.
Naama Levy, a triathlete, was held for some time with Doron Streinbrecher, who was released on Sunday, and they exercised together, “for body and soul.”
Some of them learned Arabic while they were held hostage and Kan reported that, when they were in an IDF helicopter after their release and were told to sit down, they joked that they didn’t understand and that the soldiers should speak to them in Arabic.
Kan says one of them was held in a tunnel alone for a long time, in the dark, in conditions in which it was hard to breathe.
They were moved around Gaza during their 477 days in captivity, including in Gaza City, they said. Some of them met “very senior Hamas people.”
There were periods when there was no food, Channel 12 reports them saying. There were times when some of them had to cook for terrorists, and clean toilets for them, but were denied food themselves.
When the IDF operated nearby, it was scary, they said. But they helped and supported each other.
They heard the radio quite a lot in captivity, and were aware of their families’ and other Israelis’ struggles on their behalf, they said. One of them heard her family wishing her happy birthday.
They also saw some TV, including coverage of protests on their behalf, and said this gave them strength. They even joked among themselves about the pictures their families had chosen of them to use on posters urging their release, the TV reports say.
Some of them were held in the homes of Gaza civilians, Channel 12 reports. Some of them played with the children of their captors.
Some of them said their captors treated them “shockingly.” Some of them did not get proper medical treatment, including for injuries sustained when they were being abducted. Some of them went for long periods without being able to shower and without sanitary conditions. And some of them were not allowed to hold hands or cry together.
Their captors continually referred to them derisively as “the soldiers,” they said, according to Kan.