IDF chief apologizes to recently freed surveillance soldiers for failing them on Oct. 7

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi apologizes to the recently released hostage soldiers during a meeting this morning.

“It was wrong to have not taken you seriously, you were amazing soldiers, I apologize for what you experienced in captivity,” Halevi says to four of the five surveillance soldiers who were held by Hamas for 15 months, according to leaked remarks.

For months before Hamas’s onslaught, female surveillance soldiers reported signs of activity along the restive Gaza border, situated a kilometer from them. No action was taken by the more senior officers who received the reports, and the information was disregarded as unimportant by intelligence officials.

During the meeting, the four soldiers — Agam Berger, Liri Albag, Naama Levy and Karina Ariev — told Halevi what they went through in Hamas captivity, as well as what happened during the October 7 onslaught when they were kidnapped from the Nahal Oz army post.

מצורפת תמונה מפגישת הרמטכ״ל, רב-אלוף הרצי הלוי עם התצפיתניות ששבו משבי חמאס – אגם ברגר, לירי אלבג, נעמה לוי וקרינה ארייב: pic.twitter.com/R8PjKppQ8J

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 14, 2025

Halevi told the four that they had excelled in their role as observers and correctly warned of what could happen.

The chief of staff also told them that the military would fully investigate what happened on October 7, and that they should “be partners in the investigation” by providing testimony.

The fifth surveillance soldier released from Hamas captivity, Daniella Gilboa, was not present in the meeting.