Freed hostage Agam Goldstein Almog, who was abducted from Kfar Aza along with her mother and brothers on October 7, posted a picture of herself and her younger brothers in Hamas captivity to social media, N12 reported on Sunday.
In the post, Agam described her time in captivity, writing, "Sitting there in a tunnel in Gaza, being filmed, pleading to go home. With tired and terrified eyes, that the day before witnessed the worst and feared what they would see next."
"Today is November 3, 2024, and on this date last year, I didn't know that in three more weeks, I would be released. I didn't know if I would ever be released or if I would meet other hostages. I was afraid of what my eyes would see. I didn't want to see more disasters and more pain."
"These eyes, which I may never be able to express everything they have seen, looked at the clock there every day ready, without knowing why. Eyes that looked closely at the hostages there."
"If they had released me a week earlier, so much could have been spared."
Agam spoke of the hostages who remained in Hamas captivity for over a year, saying, "I see you, and I see your other fighting for you wherever she can."
"I'm angry because if I had been released a week earlier, so much would have been spared. Even one day earlier. So what should I say to them?"
Advocating for other hostages
Agam spent 51 days in Hamas captivity, and she has long advocated for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Her father and older sister were murdered on October 7.
She has also faced abuse and antisemitism online. She expressed in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post in August.
"One of my fantasies was that we would be freed and the world would embrace us," she explained. "But the world I came back to was deeply divided and seething with anger. The hatred that I thought I had left behind in Gaza was waiting for me online."
She said that the trolls and conspiracy theories that flooded her social media had the sole objective of "driving hate."