Report: Ex-captive wanted to stay in Gaza until Berger freed

‘We’ll never leave you again’: Families meet freed hostages after 15 months of agony

Agam Berger says faith helped her get home; Gadi Mozes tells children he’ll work to rehabilitate Kibbutz Nir Oz; Arbel Yehoud’s family is ‘overwhelmed, extremely moved’

The families of the three hostages released from captivity in Gaza on Thursday embraced their loved ones for the first time in over 15 months in emotional reunions at IDF facilities and Israeli hospitals.

IDF surveillance soldier Agam Berger, 20, and civilians Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80, were released from Gaza on Thursday along with five Thai hostages.

Berger was released on Thursday morning from northern Gaza’s Jabalia, and was reunited with her parents at an IDF facility on the border with Gaza.

Hours later, Yehoud and Mozes were released in a chaotic and dangerous handover in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

In video footage of their emotional meeting, Berger’s mother Merav was seen hugging her sobbing daughter, promising “things will be good, things will be good.”

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

The video also showed Berger smiling and crying while on a video call with other relatives.

After undergoing initial medical assessments at the facility on the Gaza border, Berger and her parents were transferred via helicopter to Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

Footage from the chopper showed Berger holding up a sign on a whiteboard reading “I chose a path of faith and I returned through a path of faith.”

“Thank you to all the people of Israel and the heroic IDF soldiers,” added Berger. “There’s nobody like you in the world!”

Released hostage Agam Berger and her parents Merav, left, and Shlomi aboard a helicopter on the way to Rabin Medical Center on January 30, 2025. (IDF)

When 105 hostages were released from Hamas captivity during a week-long truce in November 2023, some of those who had been held alongside Berger told her family that she would say blessings over her food, and had told her captors, who often demanded women hostages cook for them, that she wouldn’t do so on Shabbat.

Upon arriving at the hospital in central Israel, Berger was engulfed by her siblings as they sobbed.

“How are you so tall!” she exclaimed to her younger brother. “You’re as tall as Dad.”

Released hostage Agam Berger is reunited with her siblings at Rabin Medical Center on January 30, 2025. (Itai Biton/ GPO)

Berger was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz military base on October 7, 2023, along with several other female surveillance soldiers. Four of them —  Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — were awaiting her in the hospital following their own release from captivity on Saturday, where they embraced her and cried.

One of the other abducted surveillance soldiers, Ori Megidish, was rescued alive by troops early in the war, and the body of Noa Marciano was recovered after she was murdered in captivity.

According to Channel 12 news, Albag tried to scuttle her planned release due to the fact that Berger was not being let go as well. Eventually Albag’s captors “relented” and told her they were taking her to film a propaganda video. Instead, they took her to the Red Cross for release.

The network reported that Albag and Berger also refused their captors’ orders to move into the tunnels, and were instead held above ground, though conditions were still very poor. The two were forced to cook for their captors, but not allowed to eat the food, and were moved to different locales at least 10 times.

Hours after Berger’s return to Israeli soil, the IDF confirmed that Yehoud and Moses, both of whom were held by an offshoot of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, had also crossed over the border into Israel.

The two freed hostages, both of them from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were greeted with a display set up by farmers from Gaza border communities of yellow flags — used to symbolize the hostages — and Israeli flags, as well as signs welcoming them home and hoping for the release of the remaining hostages.

Yehoud, after the harrowing ordeal of her release, was reunited with her family at an IDF facility on the border before departing for treatment at Sheba Medical Center. Hebrew media reports said she had been held alone for the duration of her time in Gaza.

Her brother Dolev Yehoud, also of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was murdered during the October 7 attack, and her partner Ariel Cunio remains hostage in Gaza, his status unknown.

In the hours leading up to their release, Islamic Jihad released a propaganda video showing Yehoud and Mozes meeting and embracing (as fellow Nir Oz members, they knew each other). According to Hebrew media reports, Yehoud’s reunion with Mozes was the first time she had encountered a fellow hostage.

According to Kan, Yehoud knew that her brother had been killed during the assault on the kibbutz, but was not aware of the extent of the destruction wreaked on the community and on southern Israel by the rampaging terrorists.

Photos released by authorities showed the moments Yehoud was reunited with her loved ones. In one image, she could be seen locked in a tight hug with her family at the IDF facility near Gaza, while a second showed them being transported to the hospital by helicopter.

In a statement upon her release, Yehoud’s family said they were “overwhelmed and extremely moved” that she had been returned to them, and that they were now looking ahead to the monumental challenge of rehabilitating as “a bereaved family, that is hurting and missing our Dolev.”

They thanked the public for its support throughout the “painful, difficult and excessively long months” that had passed since October 2023.

“Our Arbel has been returned. And yet, our mission is not yet complete,” they continued. “Arbel’s partner is still being held captive in Gaza, as is his brother David [Cunio], his good friend Sasha [Trufanov], the rest of Nir Oz’s hostages, and all of the loved ones. We will not rest until all of the hostages are released.”

The family asked that the public respect their privacy in the coming days, saying that they want to be able to give Arbel “the peace and quiet that she needs.”

Arbel Yehoud, center, with her parents and siblings on an IDF helicopter after being freed from captivity on January 30, 2025. (Courtesy)

Mozes was taken to Ichilov Hospital after an emotional reunion of his own. In photos and videos, Mozes could be seen crying as he was embraced by his three tearful children, Moran, Oded and Yair — the latter having refused to shave his beard for 482 days until his father returned.

“I’ll do everything I can to rehabilitate Nir Oz,” Mozes vowed to his children.

Freed hostage Gadi Mozes reunites with his children (from left) Oded, Moran and Yair at an IDF facility near Re’im on January 30, 2025. (IDF)

“Dad, our dad,” his daughter Moran choked out between sobs as she embraced him.

Mozes also told his children that while in captivity, he heard his ex-wife Margalit speaking to the media. Margalit was also abducted on October 7, but was released during the week-long truce in November 2023.

“I heard a bit from your mother, talking on the radio,” he said. His longtime partner Efrat Katz was killed during the Hamas assault on Nir Oz.

In separate footage, Mozes told another family member: “I saw you on television!”

Kan news reported Mozes told his family he had never stopped believing he would be released from captivity, and that he kept himself going by vowing to himself to rebuild Nir Oz and his shattered community.

He was not held alone, Channel 13 reported, but was moved around between houses and apartments to underground tunnels along with other hostages.

Seventy-nine of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 15 hostages — 10 Israelis and the five Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began this month. The terror group 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.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza this month.

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