Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan has admitted uncertainty regarding the status of the 116 remaining hostages. “I don’t have any idea about that. No one has an idea about this,” Hamdan stated when questioned about the number of hostages still alive.
Liri Albag, a 19-year-old soldier abducted on October 7, is among those whose fate remains unknown. Her mother, Shira Albag, shared distressing details about her daughter’s captivity, which she learned from Noa Argamani, a recently rescued hostage.
“Noa said that they were slaves, and so were the [female soldiers], including Liri,” Shira Albag recounted. “They cleaned the yard, did dishes and prepared food that they were not allowed to eat.”
According to Shira Albag, Liri was initially held in a luxury villa and only permitted to shower after a month. After 40 days, Liri was transferred to Hamas’s network of underground tunnels, where conditions were significantly worse.
“There it’s much worse, there’s no fresh water, and not much food,” Shira Albag explained, noting that the hostages lacked clean clothes and basic hygiene, “not even underwear.”
Hostages released in November during a brief truce reported that the female captives “cried on the 50th day that they miss their mothers.”
“I don’t want to imagine what they’re going through now,” Shira Albag added.
A video, captured by Hamas terrorists’ body cameras, documenting the abduction of five female soldiers from the Nahal Oz base, including Liri Albag, was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum last month. All five soldiers are still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
