Agam Berger returned home after spending 482 days in Hamas captivity. Her initial appearance was in a distressing video from Oct. 7, 2023, showing her bloodied and terrified, among four other young female soldiers who were also taken from the Nahal Oz IDF base. The terrorists displayed them as spoils of war while marching through the streets of Gaza.
During a recent event at the Yehezkel Synagogue in Tel Aviv, where a traditional thanksgiving meal was hosted to express gratitude to God, Berger emotionally prayed for the 59 hostages still held in Gaza.
“The living and the dead,” she said in a trembling voice in the Synagogue, “We won’t rest until they all return.”
As time passed, the situation deteriorated. Berger described how the conditions worsened with frequent changes among the Hamas guards, some of whom were harsh and others indifferent. She shared with the Israeli press that they faced arguments, scolding for minor issues, and a lack of trust in their captors.
She tried to stay hopeful, telling herself she’d be home before her younger brother’s bar mitzvah. But the day came and went. “That broke me,” she admitted in interviews. She said what kept her together was her belief that it would end somehow.
Even as rumors of a hostage deal began to circulate in early 2025, she didn’t let herself hope. “We heard people talking, but we didn’t think it would happen for us,” she said.
A military parade of the Hamas terrorist organization before the transfer of four Israeli female hostages to the Red Cross on Jan. 25, 2025. (TPS-IL)
On Jan. 24, Liri Elbag was taken away to film a release video. “They told her she was filming a video – but not that she was going home,” Agam said. “I waited for her. I had made her birthday cards. Then someone told me, ‘Your friends are already home.’”
The next day, gunfire echoed in the distance. Her captors dressed her in a hijab and drove her in circles for two hours. “They didn’t let me take anything – not our notebooks, not the drawings, nothing,” she recalled in an interview with Israeli public radio.
Agam’s absence left a gaping hole in her family, but her siblings carried her strength. Her twin sister Liyam remained in the army, even completing officer training while Agam was still missing. “She did it for her sister,” her mother said.
Â
Agam Berger is reunited with her family. (Courtesy: IDF)
Bar, the younger sister, had planned not to enlist. But after hearing that Agam had promised her fellow hostages she’d return to her base after her release, Bar changed her mind. “Three days after Agam came home, she graduated from her unit,” the Bergers’ mother recalled. “She wanted her to carry it forward.”
Now back home, Agam is surrounded by friends, visitors and endless attention. But she’s not at peace – not while others remain in captivity.
In the synagogue this week, Agam made that call loudly and publicly. “We won’t rest,” she said, “until every soul – living or dead – comes home.”
As her mother put it: “This is the Jewish mission. There’s nothing more sacred. It’s our right to exist – and our rebirth as a people – depends on it.Â
“God brought Agam home,” her mother said. “Now we have a duty to bring the others back too.”
