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Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy were abducted from the Nahal Oz base on October 7.
By DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD JANUARY 17, 2025 21:12 Updated: JANUARY 17, 2025 21:14
FOUR YOUNG women hostages before and after their capture.
(photo credit: Arsen Ostrovsky/X)
IDF observers Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy are set to be released in the first phase of a new hostage-ceasefire deal.
Abducted from the Nahal Oz base on October 7, the welfare of the female soldiers has been a major concern for the hostages’ families and much of Israeli society.
A video made public of the young women in May caused outrage as the terrorists referred to the women as “sabaya.” Depending on intonation and pronunciation, the term can be understood to mean either a young woman or a sex slave.
Dr. Edy Cohen, a Middle East analyst and a native Arabic speaker who was born and raised in Lebanon, told Israel Hayom that the terrorists clearly acted as though they were handling “spoils of war, slaves,” using rhetoric that overtly carried sexual undertones.
What is more, directly after the term was used, another terrorist called the women “so beautiful” in English, responding to the other terrorist’s 'sabaya' comment, further alluding to their plans of sexual assault and enslavement,” the Jerusalem Post previously reported.
Liri Albag
At 18 years old, Albag was abducted a day and a half after she began her role as an observer, her cousin, IDF corporal Aya Albag shared.
"I told her how proud I was of her for passing the observation course. She was motivated and so happy that she was assigned to Nahal Oz. She began her role on Thursday, and a day and a half later, on Saturday morning, she was kidnapped,” Aya shared.
Only three months after her cousin’s abduction, Aya enlisted in the IDF. Aya credited Albag with helping her find the strength and meaning to succeed in her role.
Footage of Albag, now 19 years old, was released by the Gaza-based terror group in early January.
"I'm only 19 years old. I have my entire life in front of me, but now my entire life has been put on pause," a visibly pale-looking Albag said in the footage while crying. "We're starting a really dark year here. The world is starting to forget about us. No one cares about us. We're living in a nightmare."
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"I just want people to remember me, remember my name," she concluded in the video. "All of this is because of the government and the army."
Rescued hostage Noa Argamani provided further evidence that Albag remains alive in captivity, as she told Alag’s mother they had been held and treated as domestic slaves together.
Argamani’s statement also revealed that Albag was being kept in an underground tunnel, being given saltwater and limited food to consume, and was only allowed to shower after a month of captivity.
Albag’s sister Shai said in July her sister was being subjected to psychological torture in captivity.
Hamas terrorists, according to Shai, told Albag and other hostages she was being held alongside, “You will stay here forever [in Gaza], you will marry here [with Gazans], you are soldiers, they won’t release you alive.”
As a soldier, Albag was excluded from the November deal, though her family was given false hope that she had been rescued when rumors circulated about an IDF operation in October 2024. An arrest was later made in connection to the rumors, though Albag’s sister Shai made clear the damage had already been done.
"Every night isn't a night of sleep, but last night was another night full of rumors, half of which I spent sitting by the door waiting,” she shared. "It started with rumors that I already jumped in anticipation that my Liri was coming back, and it turned into anxiety that something terrible might have happened."
Karina Ariev
In the moments before Ariev was abducted on October 7, she was able to speak to her family twice, Ynet reported.
Ariev’s sister revealed to the Daily Mail that she was instructed to “keep our parents safe and to be strong and not to wallow in sorrow but to continue living” should she not survive.”
"She didn't tell my parents to worry about me. She told me to take care of our parents. That's who we are. We are strong,” Sasha Ariev said. “This is the bond we have, and we are dealing with this together."
Before her abduction, Ariev was a Jerusalemite known for her love of cooking, singing, dancing, and creative writing, Ynet reported. Despite her Jerusalem roots, outrage erupted in May when Israeli state broadcaster KAN reported posters of Ariev were removed.
Extremists within the hassidic community may have torn the poster down, it is theorized by some.
Signs of life were received from Ariev in January last year when Hamas released a video of her alongside Daniella Gilboa and Doron Streinbrecher. The hostage families forum permitted the release of further footage in May, although it is unclear when the clip was filmed.
Agam Berger
Berger, now 20, was abducted on October 7 and taken to Gaza while still in her pajamas.
With constant disruptions to reporting and the chaos inflicted during Hamas’s attacks, the family only discovered the Berger had been abducted on October 8. It was Berger’s father who uncovered what had happened to the then-19-year-old as he discovered footage of her abduction on a Hamas Telegram channel.
Shlomi Berger, Agam’s father, told The Media Line, "We are very fearful of sexual abuse.”
"My daughter is 19. She is a teenager. I cannot imagine what went through her mind when she saw this happening in front of her,” he said while describing some of the testimonies he was told of Hamas’s brutality against soldiers.
Before being abducted to Gaza, Berger was known as a talented violinist who loved to travel. She also volunteered with children with disabilities.
Berger’s dedication to her family revealed itself, even as she remained captive. Her father claimed that released hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog had called him on his birthday - under the instruction of his daughter - to send her well wishes to him.
Daniella Gilboa
Gilboa, now 20, has appeared in multiple videos released by her terrorist captors. In a July video, Gilboa directed criticism at the government.
“I don’t know when or if I’ll ever return home. I’m under constant bombardment and gunfire 24 hours a day. I’m terrified for my life. At one point, your bombs nearly killed me,” she said. “Where were you on October 7 when I was taken from my bed? Where are you now? Why do I, as a soldier who gave 100% of myself to the country and served in such difficult conditions in the Gaza envelope, have to feel abandoned and discarded by you?”
“In the footage, she appears strong and determined, but psychological assessments we’ve received indicate her poor mental state,” Gilboa’s mother, Orly Gilboa, said after the footage was released.
The footage released reassured the many that wounds to Gilboa’s leg sustained on October 7 had not proven more deadly, Gilboa’s boyfriend’s father told Maariv.
In addition to Gilboa’s friends and family, her boyfriend awaits her return from captivity - hoping to soon be her husband, according to her boyfriend’s father. The young man has reportedly asked Gilboa’s parents for their blessing so that he can propose.
"My son asked her parents for her hand in marriage, to which they answered yes, even though they are only 19-20 years old. Right after that, he shouted to the sky - 'I'm going to propose to you!'” the father said. "He prays that she will come back soon and be reunited with him and her family."
Naama Levy
Levy’s plight quickly gained international attention when footage of her in Gaza, in bloodied grey sweatpants, circulated online. Released hostages told the family that she was wounded.
The now-20-year-old’s brother, Amit Levy, told the Media Line that his sister was not a victim of sexual violence for at least the first 50 days of her time in captivity.
“There are already so many people we failed—those we could have saved from captivity but didn’t. I cannot let that happen to my little sister,” Amit said. We cannot let it happen to any of the other hostages still being held.”
Naama Levy’s cousin Zack Shachar told Australian Jewish News on Tuesday that the family had not received any recent signs of life.
Before her abduction, she had volunteered at both the United Nations and the Red Cross. One of the many organizations she volunteered with, Hands of Peace, sought to build a future of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.
It was for her humanitarian work, and her telling her Hamas captors, "I have friends in Palestine," that the Jerusalem Post’s editor-in-chief Zvika Klein commented, “Her journey from promoting peace to becoming a symbol of the struggle for justice underscores the enduring human spirit’s capacity for resilience and the relentless pursuit of peace amidst conflict.”
Sam Halpern and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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