IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi met with four out of the five surveillance soldiers who were released from Gaza and apologized for their time in captivity on Friday.
Halevi met with Agam Berger, Liri Albag, Naama Levy, and Karina Ariev. Daniella Gilboa was the only one not present at the meeting. The soldiers told Halevi about what they went through in Nahal Oz and in captivity and the struggles they faced.
Halevi noted that the IDF will investigate everything that happened at the outpost on October 7 from where they were kidnapped and told them it’s important to him that they participate in the investigation.
Shira Albag, Liri’s mother, stated after her daughter’s release that “Liri has anger toward the army,” KAN quoted her as saying. Naama’s mother, Ayelet Levy-Shahar, said that “it’s more difficult for Naama to talk about October 7 than about the time in captivity.”
Words by the observers' parents
KAN also quoted Ira Ariev, Karina’s mother, who said that her daughter “is sure that October 7 will happen again, because Hamas is being underestimated,” adding, “Karina didn’t believe she was being released until the last minute.”
The five surveillance soldiers also decided earlier this month to return to military service, a decision that reportedly came as a surprise to their families.
Around the same time as their announcement, KAN reported that the five were also used as human shields for a senior member of Hamas’s military wing. They were in a Gaza City apartment where the senior Hamas official was staying for periods of time. The five were aware that the individual was a senior figure in the terrorist organization.
Gilboa was forced by Hamas to film a video of her own death, her mother said on Thursday in a Channel 12 interview.
“One of the captors simply came with a camera and told her, ‘Today we’re filming you dead.’ She begged for her life and asked him not to do it.”
Shortly before meeting with the soldiers, Halevi met with the family of Sgt. Gur Kehati, a Golani soldier who was killed in battle three months ago in Lebanon in the same incident as Israeli researcher Ze’ev “Jabo” Hanoch Erlich was killed. Erlich entered Lebanon unlawfully as he was embedded with Israeli forces.