The Hostage Families Forum publicly released a harrowing video on Wednesday showing the abduction of five female soldiers on Oct. 7. The edited video, showing the abduction of five officers at Nahal Oz and their harsh treatment, was released to urge the Israeli government to secure a hostage release deal after nearly eight months of captivity.
Shlomi Berger, whose 19-year-old daughter, Agam, was shown being captured in the video, told The Media Line, “We decided to make it public to remind people of what is happening daily to these girls under those tunnels.”
“We must share this with the world and pressure our government and war cabinet. We’re in a situation where there are no negotiations for the hostages, and we don’t know what happened.”
During the Oct. 7 attack on the Nahal Oz military base, 15 surveillance officers, all women, were killed. Seven others were abducted, one of whom was rescued and another of whom was killed in captivity. The remaining five—Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa, and Naama Levy—remain hostages.
The Hostage Families Forum called the video a “damning testament to the nation’s failure” to secure the hostages’ release. The forum called for Israel to prioritize a hostage deal over all other military goals and to reenter negotiations immediately.
The world has forgotten about the hostages
Berger told The Media Line that the world has forgotten about the hostages. “My daughter, along with the other 127 victims, are still there,” he told The Media Line. “Some were killed, others didn’t resist the harsh conditions, but a few are still alive. We need everyone to know this could be solved, but they won’t. The government, the war cabinet, and even those outside Israel criticizing us need to remember what is happening to them.”
He noted that some critics of Israel, who condemn the high civilian casualty count in Gaza and the scarcity of humanitarian aid, have nothing to say about the hostages. “This video should be a wake-up call,” he said.
Families of hostages have very little information about their loved ones’ conditions since humanitarian organizations have been unable to visit the hostages. One of the last pieces of news Berger received about his daughter came seven months ago, during the hostage release deal that saw 105 civilian hostages freed.
On the night of Nov. 26, Berger’s birthday, he received a call from a released hostage named Agam Goldstein-Almog, who had been held in the same tunnel as his daughter.
“She said she was with my daughter under the tunnels and that she is sending you a happy birthday. The best birthday gift would have been to have her back, but knowing that she was alive and resilient against the violence they were inflicting on her, it was as good as it could get,” Berger told The Media Line.
In that conversation, Goldstein-Almog told Berger that his daughter’s wounds were almost healed. “But today, like many other hostages, we don’t know what is the situation of my daughter,” Berger said. “I hope they didn’t hurt her. I hope they didn’t abuse her. We heard and read many testimonies of freed hostages that they were sexually abused with extreme prejudice.”
He recounted the story of Noa Marciano, another surveillance soldier who was taken captive with Agam. A doctor murdered Marciano at Al-Shifa Hospital. “Every minute living through the fear of these possibilities is like hell for our family,” Berger said.
Agam’s twin sister, younger sister, and brother have struggled to deal with the trauma of Agam’s capture. The two younger children have had a hard time returning to school.
“Meanwhile, for Agam’s twin sister, it’s like she can feel her sister in captivity,” Berger said. “Her twin is serving in the IDF now, and she also understands that Agam is a soldier and we must bring her back. It has been good for her because she knows she is doing something to help.”
Berger believes that both military pressure and negotiations are necessary to secure the hostages’ release. “Many people criticize Israel for going into Gaza, but if we didn’t put military pressure on Hamas, they wouldn’t even consider negotiating with us,” he said, “Still, we must keep talking and negotiating parallel to every military operation. I believe we can only bring them back alive through negotiations. Through pure military operations, many hostages will die, as well as many IDF soldiers.”
While addressing the root cause of the conflict with Hamas will take years, returning the hostages must be done immediately, Berger said. “The kids that Hamas controls are already being taught to hate us, so we need to plan how to stop these kids from teaching their kids to hate us. This will take years,” he said, “Meanwhile, for the hostages, every minute counts, and they’ve been in hell for eight months. They have no time to wait. We must make a deal to bring them back, and if we need to stop the war, then we should stop the war.”
Even as Berger criticized the Israeli government’s failure to secure Agam’s release, he expressed frustration with anti-Israel activists and with the International Criminal Court’s recent decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The world needs to be more supportive of Israel because Hamas leadership will only negotiate if there is pressure on them,” he said. “If they feel legitimated by the rest of the world, they won’t be open to a nonviolent solution.”