Trump reposts video from freed hostage Agam Berger imploring him to get all captives home
Weeks after being freed from captivity, 20-year-old surveillance soldier calls on US president to secure release of remaining hostages in Gaza, says he ‘has the power to do it’
US President Donald Trump on Monday reposted a video message filmed by released hostage soldier Agam Berger. In it, she thanked him for his efforts to secure the ongoing ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Berger, 20, was one of five female surveillance soldiers kidnapped from the IDF’s Nahal Oz military base on October 7, 2023, and released by Hamas last month in the first phase of the arrangement.
Berger thanked Trump “from the bottom of my heart for all you have done and all that you continue to do for the hostages.
“Because of you, we came home,” she said, adding that there were “still people who really depend on you and are waiting for you to save them from there,” adding that the US president “has the power to do it.”
The Gaza deal — mediated by both the incoming and outgoing US administrations — came into effect the day before Trump took office last month, bringing to a halt 15 months of fighting that began when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages.
The US president has on multiple occasions taken credit for the agreement through his pressure on both sides, though it also came after more than a year of effort by the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden, under whom the framework for the deal was agreed to last spring.
An Israel Democracy Institute poll earlier this month found that the majority of Israelis believe Trump was responsible for securing the deal.
Donald Trump Truth Social Post 07:45 PM EST 02/17/25 pic.twitter.com/ngMTnpnxX7
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) February 18, 2025
With six rounds of hostage-prisoner releases completed in the ongoing deal, there are 14 Israeli hostages still slated to be set free in the first phase, of whom Hamas has said eight are dead. But dozens more, both living and dead, will remain in Gaza unless the sides can agree on a second phase of the ceasefire.
“I beg you, don’t stop until all the hostages, the living and the dead, are brought home,” Berger said to Trump in the video, which the US president shared on his Truth Social profile without comment.
Berger was released from Gaza on January 30, returning to Israel along with civilian hostages Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes after 482 days in captivity.
By the end of the initial 42-day phase, the terror group will release 33 hostages, of whom 19 have already been freed in exchange for Israel’s release of 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murders. Five Thai nationals kidnapped on October 7 were also freed under a side deal.
Israel is expecting to receive the bodies of four hostages from Hamas on Thursday under the provisions of the deal, and another three living hostages are slated to be freed on Saturday.
According to an annex of the deal whose content was revealed on Monday evening but has not been officially published, Hamas will then hand over four more bodies of hostages the following Thursday, February 27, followed by the release of the final three living hostages in phase one between February 22 and March 2, including Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, who have been held in Gaza for over a decade.
A total of 70 captives remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Before the current truce came into effect, the terror group also freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
