Earlier this month, returned Israeli hostage Emily Damari’s iconic “rock on” hand gesture, featuring two missing fingers that were shot off on October 7, became an icon of resilience. This past weekend, it was Liri Albag’s hand gesture of a heart, in front of a face smiling and brimming with strength, that symbolized the long-awaited return of four young female soldiers — Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy, all captured from their Gaza border base in Nir Oz on October 7.
One fellow soldier still remains in Gaza, Agam Berger, who will possibly be released in one of the two rounds of hostage releases taking place this week — one on Thursday and one on Saturday. One of the four girls reportedly refused to let go of Berger’s hand until she was made to — not wanting to be released without her. Hostage Arbel Yahud, who was supposed to be freed before the female soldiers, will hopefully be released this week, too.
“I love you,” Albag said to the camera documenting her release, sharing her love for the people of Israel who helped support her family through over 470 harrowing days while she was in captivity and expressing gratitude to the soldiers who fought for her and her country. When her mother whispered in her ear about dreaming of her return, Liri responded that she did, too, every day. Liri’s strength and exuding positivity didn’t surprise her family. Her partner, Nir, talked about how not too long before she was kidnapped, he was severely injured as a soldier. Liri learned of his injury while at the Duty-Free shop in the airport, about to travel overseas with her girlfriends. Instead of boarding that plane, she turned around and drove off to be at his bedside. Nir didn’t know if he would ever walk again, but Liri kept making him repeat this mantra: “I am strong, I believe in myself and I will get through this.” Liri had to repeat similar mantras to herself and others while in captivity — including the line, “Liri Albag’s number 1!” which she cried out when reunited with her parents (she apparently joked with her family that if Hamas had let her speak at their victory rally, that’s what she would have shouted from the microphone).
Liri finally reunited with Nir, who showed her the fruits of her encouragement — the day she was kidnapped, he still hadn’t gotten back on his feet. Now, he got to walk upright towards the girl he had been waiting for for 15 months. “My heart is finally whole,” he wrote in his Instagram stories.
Another one of the returned hostages reunited with her longtime partner — Daniella Gilboa got to hug her boyfriend, Roy Dadon. Gilboa, a gifted singer, had been with Roy since they were in middle school, when they were just 12 years old, and he even proposed to her two months after she was captured. He had been sleeping on a mattress in the living room, doing nothing but waiting for her return. Daniella apparently told Roy’s mother that she worried that he had moved on, but when she saw him briefly on the news from captivity, she realized he was still waiting for her, and that knowledge helped her hold on to hope and find inner strength. Her family produced a song that she had written for Roy while in captivity. The two embraced each other through tears again this past Saturday.
Before she hugged Roy, Daniella reunited with her parents. “Ima, you’re a lioness,” she told her mother, Orli, who had been tirelessly fighting for her release. “She went all over the world,” her father agreed. Daniella’s family reported that she was shot in the leg on October 7 and that bullet is still lodged in her leg.
Naama Levy’s haunting image from October 7, barefoot in blood-stained sweats, is one that’s hard to forget. Last year, artist Zoe Buckman spoke about Levy and her dreams of becoming a diplomat and peacemaker; in videos from captivity, you could hear the young woman, now 20, talk about having friends in Palestine. That same month, Naama’s friends all went to the Knesset dressed in gray sweats with red painted stains on them, their faces painted red as well, to help push for a deal that would lead to her return.
“I worry most that she will despair and that she will stop fighting from the inside. This is why I keep telling her in my mind… don’t stop, just hang in there,” her mother, Ayelet, said in one interview during her captivity. This past weekend, she got to look at her daughter’s beautiful face once more. “My sweet girl,” Ayelet said in the video of their reunion, while her father told her that they’ve got her now and will keep her safe.
נעמה לוי, דניאלה גלבוע, קרינה ארייב ולירי אלבג נפגשות עם הוריהן בנקודת הקליטה הראשונית
(צילום: דובר צה"ל) pic.twitter.com/LID21P1SbT— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) January 25, 2025
Levy shared that she was held by herself for part of her captivity, and when she reunited with the other girls, she asked them, “Are we alive?” having lost all sense of reality. At a press conference, her father called for an inquiry into what happened at the Nahal Oz Outpost on October 7, where there was a “voice that yelled out that was not heard.”
Her grandfather, Shaul Levy, had been standing at the same spot at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv every day for months with a sign of her face, and now, he has gone back there and replaced the sign with one for hostage Omer Wenkert.
Karina Ariev asked her father, Albert, what he would do if she was captured days before the terrible events of October 7, telling him that from what she saw across the border, a war with Gaza was brewing. On the day of the attack, she called her sister Sasha, five years older but who she thought of as her twin, and asked her to take care of their parents, to make sure that they kept living. Karina, like Daniella and Naama, turned 20 while in captivity. She is smart, an avid reader, and connected with her inner child, according to her family. In interviews, Sasha worried that Karina would forget what it means to be young and carefree.
“She’s just beginning to process what she’s been through, but the support and love are helping heal some of the wounds,” Sasha said at a press conference the medical center where the hostages are currently recovering. “We are still waiting for Agam, Arbel [Yahud] and Shiri [Bibas] and all our other loved ones. We won’t rest and won’t be silenced until after they all come home.”
We pray for the return of everyone’s loved ones, and are so happy for these families who finally got their loved ones back.
