Released hostage Liri Albag talked about 477 days in captivity and how she marked the holidays as they went by.
More than two months have passed since the release of Liri Albag from Hamas captivity, where she was held together with four of her comrades from the command center at Nahal Oz. Liri told Kan about how they marked the holidays while in Gaza.
She talked about the first call she had with her parents from the Nahal Oz outpost on October 7. “I told them there was talk of terrorist intrusions, of a raid. At 7:44 they had already shot at us, but I wasn’t hurt. And that was it, the call was disconnected. A masked terrorist entered with his gun, peeked in, saw there were girls, and went outside, startled for a moment. They didn’t expect to see such a group of girls inside a bulletproof shelter in a military camp.”
Within a few minutes, a battle broke out that ended in her capture. “They handcuffed us and told us we were going to Gaza. We got into a military jeep and sat on its floor. About 16 terrorists joined us. The citizens in Gaza welcomed them with dancing and whistling. Then we arrived at the first apartment, where everything started.”
“There were other captives in the house – Aviva, Keith, and Agam. There were four terrorists in the apartment and the family of one of them – a mother and three young girls ages three, one and a half, and three months. 11 people in a small two-room apartment. The terrorists slept in the living room or with us, we were in one room and the family in the other,” Albag recounted.
On the 34th day after her capture, two weeks after the ground operation began, the terrorists started to split up the captives. “We went down to a tunnel where we met Romi Gonen. Then the next day, Dafna and Ella joined us. The day after, Emily joined. We were six girls in a small cell one and a half meters high, we couldn’t stand. The food was two pita breads for all of us.”
“We heard there was a war, we felt the booms. They told us there was talk of negotiations. They said to us ‘you are part of this,’ meaning we are part of this deal, and we held onto the hope that soon we would be home, the women and children. During the ceasefire, we moved to a larger room, and then Naama joined us, which for me was our reunion,” Albag added.
As time went on, the atmosphere became more difficult. “There was depression. We thought to ourselves how we are not married, we are women who could be raped, how we still have not been rescued. The terrorists told us that Israel did not agree to accept bodies, only living people, and we thought to ourselves ‘what are you doing? How can you forfeit this opportunity? We were going crazy there. Slowly, another day passed, and another day, we said maybe tomorrow, and then Chanukkah was approaching. We thought maybe there would be a miracle.”
No miracle happened. “We asked for candles; they couldn’t find any for us, but they brought us an electric candle. We lit it and said the prayer and sang Chanukkah songs around it. They took away everything we know. Judaism was the only thing we had there. There was nothing we could do; religion was the only thing that separated us from them at that time because we ate like them, sat like them, we had to speak like them, and only the prayers were something different.”
And then came the additional farewell from Naama and the rest of the captives, the farewell in which Liri and Agam began their shared journey in captivity. “We arrived at the apartment with the terrorists. I asked for a mobile phone and a radio. At worst, they might say no. That evening, he already brought us the radio, I remember hearing ISraeli songs. The music kept me going.”
Liri wasn’t afraid to stand up to the terrorists. “There was a time after that, in April, that I would take the radio of my own accord and told them not to disturb me while I listened to interviews. It was very encouraging. I even heard my family.”
On Memorial Day, they stood when they heard the siren on the radio. “When it was Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day, we asked the terrorists for candles to light. We stood in silence. They didn’t understand why we were standing, and we really hoped they wouldn’t enter the room, but as soon as the siren ended, they called us to the living room. It was on Holocaust Remembrance Day. They entered the room and saw us sitting and looking at the candles we lit. They didn’t understand, they left the room and looked a bit frightened, they were scared for a moment; I think they thought we were in some cult or something.”
About her return from captivity, she said: “One day, they told me to get dressed to make another video. A car stopped next to us, the window opened, and in the back, I saw Karina, Daniela, and Naama sitting. I looked at them, they looked at me, and we were in shock. They already knew. I got into the car and they told me: ‘Liri, tomorrow we are going home.’ I couldn’t believe it. They told me ‘Liri, Romi, Emily, and Doron have already been home for a week, we are leaving home tomorrow.’ I couldn’t believe it until I reached the IDF.”
