Former hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog shared new images on Sunday from her time held in Gaza, urging for the release of the 101 hostages still being held captive after 394 days. "Look them in the eyes; how much longer will you ask them to survive like this?" she wrote in an Instagram post, accompanied by two photos.
In one, she stands beside her younger siblings, Gal and Tal, who were abducted alongside her. Her father, Nadav, was murdered on October 7.
"Just sitting there in a tunnel in Gaza, photographed, begging to come home," wrote the 18-year-old. "With tired, frightened eyes that had just witnessed the worst and feared what more they might see. Today, November 3, 2024, on this date last year, I had no idea that in three weeks I'd be free, no idea if I’d even survive if I'd see other hostages. I was afraid of what my eyes would see. I didn't want to witness more tragedy or pain.
"These eyes — eyes that likely will never fully express all they've seen. Eyes that each day there, looked at the clock, waiting without knowing what for. Eyes that saw the other hostages up close. I looked into your eyes, not knowing it would take so much longer. How can we still look you in the eye? What will we say to you? What do you see there? What's being done to you from the day we parted?
"Today, I look at you through my own eyes and see people who don't place you first on their list of priorities. I see you, and then I see your mother fighting for you everywhere she can. I see two worlds and know what you're seeing there. Look into my tired, lost eyes in the photo and tell me I’d have to survive like that for another 51 days. I wouldn’t have believed it. And I'm angry because so much would have been spared if they'd freed me even a week earlier. Even a single day earlier.
"So what can I say about them? Soon it'll be 400 days and to think of all we could have spared them from seeing. And how much we continue to add with every delay. Look them in the eyes; how much longer will you ask them to survive like this?"
In an interview with The Washington Post published in January, Goldstein-Almog spoke about the sexual abuse of those who remain in captivity, revealing that hostages she encountered in the tunnel confided in her that they had been sexually assaulted.
In the tunnel where she and her family stayed for a week before their release, Agam met six women, some of whom were injured to varying degrees. The teen recounted that she and her mother treated their wounds using the limited means available.
The teen shared that some of the women were held in isolation, separated from others, in small rooms with their daughters. When they met these women, some tearfully and with great difficulty revealed that they had been sexually assaulted. "It was the first question we asked when we realized we were alone: 'How do they treat you?' Suddenly, they had someone they could share with and break down in front of - cry together.”
Agam was released on November 26. On the day of her release, she said: "Suddenly they came and told us to be ready at nine in the morning. The other girls, who were not supposed to be released, they lied to: 'Maybe tomorrow, Inshallah, maybe tomorrow.'"
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