“Some girls were physically abused and were alone throughout their captivity.”
Three weeks after their return from captivity in Gaza, Chen Goldstein-Almog and his daughter Agam recounted their ordeal at the hands of Hamas, the loss of Nadav, the family's father, and Yam, in a long interview broadcast on N12. the older girl.
Chen, Agam and his brothers Gal (11) and Tal (9) returned from hell after 51 days that changed their lives forever. Nadav, her father, was killed by terrorists on October 7 at the family home in Kfar Aza with a bullet to the chest, while Yam, her older sister, was shot in the head.
“Every day in Gaza, I forced myself not to forget what I saw in the most difficult moments before I went to sleep,” says Chen.
The terrorists took the surviving family members to Gaza in their vehicle. “I remember the look of fear on my children’s faces. While driving, the terrorists also piled bodies into the car,” Chen said.
The first thing 17-year-old Agam feared when she arrived in Gaza was rape. “That immediately scared me, I told my mother: 'They're going to rape me'. I then asked the driver to leave us in captivity together and miraculously we didn't. We were not separated,” the young girl said.
While in captivity, Chen and the children learned from the terrorists that Nadav and Yam had not survived. “It was the first time Gal, 11.5 years old, cried,” Chen said. Chen, Agam and the two boys were held in an apartment for about five weeks with other hostages who lived with them 24 hours a day.
“Sometimes we would go for a walk and ask each other to run a little,” Chen remembers. The terrorists spoke to Agam and Hen about gender relations in the Gaza Strip. “They told me: 'We will marry you in Gaza, we will find a husband for you here,'” Agam recalls. Chen added: “They also gave him a very beautiful Arabic name. Agam was given the name Salasbil, which means fresh water.”
“I often insulted them in Hebrew, but some of them understand,” Agam says.
During the first and last week of their captivity, the family met many of the people abducted in the Gaza tunnels. “It's a great excitement to see hostages, people we knew a little,” says Hen. “There were a lot of girls there. 19-year-old girls alone, and they were experiencing difficult things on a personal level that had a profound impact on them. They were also physically abused, it was torture. A “she was alone.” from the beginning,” Agam explained. “When she saw us, she spoke very quietly and slowly. She said to me, 'Excuse me for talking like that, I just haven't spoken in 50 days.'