Finding God in Gaza: Former Israeli hostage found faith to help her survive Hamas terror

Yahoo

23-03-2025

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."
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Her mother, Merav Berger, told Fox News Digital, "I began to feel God shaking my world." She started keeping the Sabbath in her daughter's honor – long before she knew whether her daughter was alive. "We grew up traditional, but not religious. Agam didn't keep Shabbat before. But somehow, she found God – in Gaza, of all places."
She said what kept her daughter going was faith and identity. "They took her body," she told Israeli media, "but they couldn't take her soul and identity."
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She and fellow hostage Liri Albag were given a radio during their early days in captivity, and told in an interview to Israel public radio station, "We'd hear voices—Israelis saying that we were worth fighting for. That gave us strength," she said. "But after the first hostage rescue, they took the radio. They were more paranoid than ever."
In January 2024, Hamas guards brought them a stack of items recovered from an abandoned Israeli military outpost: maps, a newspaper and a Jewish prayer book.
Agam's mother later revealed that her daughter had dreamed of a siddur – a Jewish prayer book – just days earlier. "Then it arrived," Merav said. "How do you explain that? That's not chance. That's faith."
With that book, she began marking Jewish time. "We had a watch at first," she told Israeli public radio. "That's how we knew when it was Shabbat, when it was Yom Kippur. I fasted. On Passover, I refused bread. I asked for corn flour—and they brought it. In a strange way, they respected my religion."
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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.
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.
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."Original article source: Finding God in Gaza: Former Israeli hostage found faith to help her survive Hamas terror