Hamas releases video of 19-year-old captive Liri Albag
Hamas released a video of hostage Liri Albag on Saturday.
Israeli hostage Liri Albag, now 19. Photo courtesy the family.
“The sign of life from Liri is hard and solid proof of the urgency in returning all the abductees,” the Families’ Headquarters for the Return of the Abductees said in response. “Every day in the Hamas hell in Gaza is an immediate danger of death for the living abductees and a danger to the ability to return the dead for burial.”
The video was not dated, but Albag said she had been held for 450 days.
Albag, now 19, was a surveillance soldier at the Nahal Oz army base when she was abducted with Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa. All are still being held in Gaza.
Israeli officials and the families of the hostages have denounced previous videos as psychological warfare. Albag’s family requested the media not to air Saturday’s video.
Albag was last seen in a video released by The Hostages Families Forum in May showing Hamas terrorists threatening to sexually assault five women abducted on October 7.
President Isaac Herzog spoke by phone this evening with her parents Shira and Eli Albag
The President sought to offer them strength and support after receiving the deeply upsetting video, which was also a sign of life after such an extended period.
In the emotional and painful conversation, the President reiterated that the Israeli representatives currently conducting negotiations must persist and remain at the negotiating table until all 100 hostages are returned home.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the family that he identifies with the torment that Liri, her family and all of the hostages and their families, have been enduring.
He promised that Israel would continue to work relentlessly to bring Liri and all the hostages back home and that the efforts are continuing, including at the present.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
