After 482 days in Hamas captivity, Agam Berger was finally home. The world first saw her in the horrific footage from Oct. 7, 2023 – bloodied, terrified, alongside four other young women soldiers abducted from the Nahal Oz IDF base. The terrorists paraded them through the streets of Gaza as trophies.

At a recent ceremony, held at the Yehezkel Synagogue in Tel Aviv at a traditional meal of gratitude to God, Berger made an emotional plea to God for the 59 hostages who remain 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 the months dragged on, the conditions worsened. Hamas guards rotated often, she said, noting that many were cruel and others indifferent. She related to the Israeli media that, “They argued with us, scolded us over small things… we didn’t know who we could trust.”

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.
 

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. 

“God brought Agam home,” her mother said. “Now we have a duty to bring the others back too.”