After 15 months, no more female soldiers remain held in Gaza

Surveillance soldiers all finally home: Agam Berger’s return closes one horrific Oct. 7 chapter

Berger’s freed comrades embrace her at hospital, elect to stay with her; release offers closure for families whose daughters did not survive, as sister of slain commander writes: ‘It’s over. You can rest in peace’

Released hostage soldier Agam Berger meets her four comrades, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag, at Rabin Medical Center, January 30, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Released hostage soldier Agam Berger meets her four comrades, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag, at Rabin Medical Center, January 30, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

With their hands tightly intertwined, the four women stood with bated breath in a hospital waiting room. Having emerged from captivity mere days ago, their relief was incomplete, after being forced to leave their friend behind, alone in the hell of Gaza.

And then, she appeared around the corner. In an instant, they rushed toward each other, collapsing into a tangled embrace of joyful sobs. It was over.

The return of hostage Agam Berger Thursday and her reunion with her family, friends and her comrades in captivity brought to a close a horrendous chapter of the Gaza hostage saga, as the last of the female surveillance soldiers taken hostage during the October 7, 2023, attacks finally came home.

The story of Berger and the four other surveillance soldiers, who were freed on Saturday — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — had become one of the causes célèbres of the struggle to free the hostages, fueled by the knowledge of their particular vulnerability as young women in captivity, reports that their pre-attack warnings were dismissed, and the horrific circumstances of their capture, amplified by the harrowing videos from that day.

The women were among over 20 border surveillance soldiers, “tatzpitaniot” in Hebrew, who fell victim to Hamas’s attack on the Nahal Oz Base on the morning of October 7, when hundreds of armed terrorists stormed the border outpost, in one of the most famous battles of that day. Dozens of soldiers were killed in heavy fighting as the base was overrun.

The surveillance soldiers, whose job it was to monitor cameras scanning every inch of the border, were not combat-trained, and were not armed. Some hid in a shelter while others hid inside the base’s command center, but both were overrun by the attackers, targeted with grenades and burned down. Fifteen young surveillance soldiers were slain that day, including the women’s beloved 20-year-old commander, Cpt. Shir Eilat.

Seven were taken captive. Of those seven, one, Ori Megidish, was freed by special forces in Gaza weeks after the attack, while another, Noa Marciano, was murdered in captivity. Videos of the capture of the five others horrified the nation.

Beyond the shock of the events surrounding their capture, the dismissal of surveillance soldiers’ alleged repeated warnings to their commanders of ominous doings near the border in the period before the attack has emerged as a key failure among the many that enabled the invasion and massacres to take place.

The five young women were kept together for much of their time in captivity and developed a strong bond. Thursday’s reunion took place at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, where all five women are receiving care after their return from almost a year and a half in Hamas captivity.

In a sign of their closeness, the four freed on Saturday said they planned to stay at the hospital over the coming days, despite being eligible for release, to remain at their friend’s side.

Newly freed hostage Agam Berger meets comrades freed from Hamas captivity last week: Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag (IDF)

Berger’s return Thursday alongside civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud also means only one more female hostage remains in Gaza after over 15 months: Shiri Bibas, whose fate, along with those of her two young boys, remains unknown. Israel says it has “grave concerns” for their fate.

According to multiple Hebrew media reports, the four who were released on Saturday told friends and family that it was very hard to leave Berger behind on Saturday. Channel 12 reported that Albag had refused to leave Berger’s side, and only did so when their captors lied to her, telling her they were only leaving to film a video and would return.

Dr. Lena Koren Feldman, director of Rabin Medical Center, said that when the four former hostages saw Berger being released, “there were screams of joy and great excitement.”

“Her return marks an essential step in their collective healing,” Feldman said.

At the hospital, the four had prepared welcome signs for Berger, reading “hero,” “queen,” “We’ve been waiting for you,” and “Agami, it’s so great that you’re home,” and hanged them on the door of the room prepared for her.

Freed hostage Liri Albag decorates the door of her comrade, Agam Berger, ahead of her release from Gaza, at the Rabin Medical Center on January 30, 2025. (IDF)

Videos on Thursday showed Berger being reunited with her family — first her parents at an IDF facility near the border, and then her siblings at the hospital in Petah Tikva.

In video from the Re’im facility near Gaza, Berger’s mother, Merav, was seen embracing the sobbing Agam, promising “Things will be good, things will be good.”

“We’re here and we’ll never leave you again — ever,” Merav said. “That’s a mother’s promise.”

Freed hostage Agam Berger is reunited with her parents at an IDF facility next to the Gaza border on January 30, 2025. (IDF)

Closure for the bereaved

Following Berger’s release, Nir Eilat, the bereaved sister of the women’s fallen commander, Cpt. Shir Eilat, wrote on Instagram: “It’s over my angel. You can rest in peace. Your soldiers have returned.”

Shir’s mother Ayelet Eilat said the hostages’ return marked a “point of light” and “a sort of closure for our personal and national nightmare.”

Cpt. Shir Eilat who was killed in Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. (IDF)

“We’ve waited for this moment since October 2023, from the second we understood the blow that was dealt to Nahal Oz. Our heart is with the hostages, Shir’s soldiers, who managed to survive hell. It’s a point of light in the darkness,” she said.

After acknowledging that “the pain of the difficult personal loss of our daughter Shir hasn’t ended,” calling her grief “a continuing nightmare,” Ayelet told news outlets that Shir’s father had refused to say of their daughter, “May she rest in peace,” vowing to only do so “when her soldiers had returned home.”

“Now is the time to say it. May all of the hostages return home. It’s our duty to them,” she said.

Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Roni Eshel served alongside Berger at Nahal Oz and was killed on October 7, wrote on X: “Beloved Agam, the last surveillance soldier from Nahal Oz, is finally returning home now. The nightmare… is over.”

The bereaved father, who has been outspoken on the failures leading up to the October 7 terror invasion — noting repeatedly that his daughter had warned of suspicious Hamas activity in Gaza in the lead-up to the attack — added: “Now, the time has come to give answers to the precious girls, to us, and to the entire people of Israel.”

Roni Eshel, an IDF soldier who was stationed at a military base near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023. She was murdered in the onslaught. (Courtesy of Eyal Eshel via AP)

Eshel called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the disaster — which the government has so far resisted.

Also speaking of a “sort of a closure” on Thursday was Sapir Nissani, whose sister Shahaf Nassani, another surveillance soldier, was killed at Nahal Oz just days before she was set to complete her military service.

Staff Sgt. Shahaf Nissani, who was killed in Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. (Facebook)

“Wow, it’s a joyous day. We’ve waited for it for so, so, so long. We prayed that everyone would return, that it would be a sort of closure for us, that all of the surveillance soldiers would return to us, to their families, and we’re really so happy,” she told Channel 12.

“But — and there is a but — seven surveillance soldiers were abducted from the bomb shelter at Nahal Oz, and one of them was Noa Marcano, of blessed memory, who was murdered in Hamas captivity,” Nissani said.

“And it’s heartbreaking to know that if this deal had happened earlier, she too would have returned,” she said, adding, “This happened too late. She won’t return to us.”

Cpl. Noa Marciano, who was killed in Hamas captivity in November 2023 after being taken hostage on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)

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