Freed teen hostage feared Hamas would rape, torture and kill her

News

Israel war 2023

By Yaron Steinbuch

A teenage Israeli girl whose dad and sister were killed by Hamas has recounted her ordeal being held hostage with the rest of her family — and how she was convinced she would be raped, tortured and killed.

Agam Goldstein-Almog, 17, was hauled into captivity in Gaza City during the Oct. 7 terror attacks, along with her 48-year-old mom, Chen, and two brothers, Gal, 11, and Tal, 9, before they were freed on Nov. 26.

“I remember our entry into the city. I simply told my mom, ‘They are going to torture me, they are going to rape me,’” Goldstein-Almog said in a Thursday interview on Israeli Army Radio, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“I kept saying to myself all the time — ‘What, won’t I reach my 18th birthday? At least give me until 18.’”

In captivity, she had dreams of being reunited with her dad, Nadav, and 20-year-old soldier sister, Yam, 20, who’d stayed to help her dad during the murderous rampage in Kibbutz Kfar Aza because he was recovering from surgery.

“We had hope that we would return and Father would be waiting for us, that we would see him in a wheelchair,” Goldstein-Almog said.

“What we heard on the radio shattered that hope for us,” she said of the news that both had been murdered.

She often just looked at her mother to communicate in a way their captors would not understand.

“There are feelings that the body feels that cannot be explained. It is an absolute shock, no matter what I say, it won’t be understood,” Goldstein-Almog said.

“We both looked at each other and understood that there would probably never be words. There will always be only feelings,” she said.

“Words are too small compared to what the body feels. So that’s how it was. We looked and understood, as cliché as it may sound. We just had to look at each other and feel that we are in the same boat, feeling the same thing, and we couldn’t talk about it because there are no words to describe it,” the girl added.

When asked when she was most scared, she said at night.

“With all the difficulty in saying it, I was most afraid of the [Israeli] airstrikes every night. At first, there was the fear of [the terrorists], which was the biggest fear,” Goldstein-Almog said.

“Slowly, there were greater fears, which were the heavy bombings,” she added.

Regarding how captivity changed her, Goldstein-Almog said, “It changed many things for the worse and took away a sense of security from me, instilling a lot of fear, anxiety, confusion, and helplessness in me.”

She said her “life values” have changed.

“Theirs was always different from ours, but mine changed after something like this,” the teen said.

She added: “I’m glad there are those who continue with their lives — it shows a certain strength. But on the other hand, 71 days in captivity are like one long day.

“It’s really the same day. So we are always moving forward but thinking about those who are still stuck there behind and want to say that they are in danger.”