Freed Israeli hostage held onto faith to get through months of captivity in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli hostage freed in the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas said Tuesday that faith sustained her in captivity and that she used the few means that were available to observe Judaism.
In what appeared to be the first media interview by a captive freed in this ceasefire, Agam Berger told Israeli public radio Reshet Bet that she was moved around multiple times during the nearly 16 months she was held in the Gaza Strip. She said she was held in tunnels and apartments with other female captives, with the conditions varying depending on where she was held and who was guarding her.
“We had food and conditions that for the most part were OK when you know what could have been,” she said. “But when you think about it, they aren’t conditions for a human.”
Berger was a military spotter who was captured along with other female surveillance soldiers on Oct. 7, 2023, from a base in southern Israel. She was freed last month as part of the ceasefire pausing the 15-month war.
Other freed captives have recounted through their families being starved, chained and abused. And Berger said her conditions worsened after two military raids early last year rescued hostages, making her captors more anxious.
Hamas has released 25 living hostages and the remains of four others as part of the deal. On Tuesday, mourners held a funeral for Oded Lifshitz, who at 83 at the time of the abduction was one of the oldest hostages taken captive in Hamas’ attack, which sparked the war in Gaza. Israel says he was killed in captivity.
Berger’s family has said since her release that she tried to observe Judaism even in captivity. In January 2024, Berger said her captors brought her and other hostages two Jewish prayer books, as well as other objects left behind by Israeli soldiers, such as an Israeli newspaper and military maps.
She spent her first Hannukah in captivity in December 2023, held in a tunnel with four other captives. She said they asked their captors for candles to mark the holiday when faithful light a menorah for eight nights. They were brought one.
She kept track of the date through a clock given to one of her fellow captives until that was taken away months before her release when she said she had a harder time following Jewish holidays unless she caught a glimpse of Israeli news.
For much of the time, Berger, 20, was given two meals a day, pita and rice. In her little access to news media, she learned of developments in the war, including the debate in Israel over what price to pay for the hostages’ release. She said it was demoralizing to learn there were some in government unwilling to make big concessions to free the captives.
“It’s like saying that our lives aren’t worth enough,” she said.
Israel is freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
Berger said she was told the night before her release last month that she would be freed and a sleepless night followed. Palestinian women came to prepare her in the morning and dressed her in the dark green military fatigues she would appear in on a stage later that day.
They told her she would be made to participate in an orchestrated release ceremony with a large crowd, and she was forced to write a thank-you note to her captors.
“I just tried to invent things and said (to myself) ‘I don’t care. I am going home today,’” she said.
She was told she couldn’t take with her any of the meager possessions she had gathered while in captivity. She left behind notebooks full of sketches she had made with a fellow captive, cards she had written for the birthdays of relatives she had missed and the prayer book.
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By TIA GOLDENBERG
Associated Press
