It’s been nearly three weeks since Israeli hostages — Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, Liri Albag and Karina Ariev — were released by Hamas in the first phase of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire. The four women, in olive-green military attire, appeared on stage alongside the members of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades. They smiled, waved at the cameras, and received “gift bags” before being handed over to the Red Cross. While they have returned home, only their mothers know what they have been through.
“She’s back in her room,” Ayelet Levy Shachar, the mother of Naama Levy, said. “Although she does prefer to sleep with me at night.”
When Hamas carried out the unexpected October 7 ambush and attack, the four women were on their mandatory military service as unarmed “spotters”. Their task was to watch the activities inside Gaza and report to commanders at another base.
Ms Gilboa had been at the outpost for nearly nine months, while Ms Levy and Ms Albag came only a couple of days before the attack.
Just days after her 15-month captivity, Ms Gilboa got engaged to her longtime boyfriend. Her mother Orly said that she’s happy to be free, adding that her daughter is happy to do things she likes without anyone telling her not to do it.
“She understands that we just live once, and she wants to do everything. She’s just a young girl,” Orly told CNN. “There are a lot of things under and I’m sure that we can see them when the days go by.”
Does she talk about October 7? The answer is no. Ms Gilboa has yet to tell her mother about “what happened that day.”
“I assume that in a few days or a few months, she’ll decide to talk about it, and she will tell me about it herself. I don’t want to make any pain for her,” Orly added.
Shira Albag, the mother of Liri Albag said that her daughter lived in apartments with civilians for most of the last 15 months in Gaza. “It was difficult because they needed to … to clean the house and to cook for them and to sit with the children and try to teach them English or play with them,” she said.
“They didn’t treat them nice,” she said.
Orly, too, stressed that they saw Daniella how she looked right now. “It doesn’t mean anything about what happened there and how she felt there,” she added.
According to CNN, at least 73 people — some believed to be dead — taken hostage during the October 7 attack were still in Hamas captivity.
The Palestinian Hamas group said on Thursday it did not want the Gaza ceasefire agreement to collapse, adding they were committed to releasing Israeli hostages under the timeline set out in the deal.
“Hamas confirms continuation in implementing the agreement in accordance with what was signed, including the exchange of prisoners (Israeli hostages) according to the specified timetable,” the group said in a statement.