London24NEWS

Our younger daughters are lastly house after being held hostage by Hamas whereas paraded as battered and bloodied – however why did it take so lengthy for a lot of the world to care?

For a moment, imagine you are Agam Berger’s mother, Meirav. Nearly five hundred days ago, her then 19-year-old daughter was captured by Hamas.

So proud were those murderers of their prize that they broadcast images of Agam’s battered face covered in the blood of her young friends who had just been executed in their pyjamas in front of her.

Can you begin to understand, even slightly, how helpless Meirav must have felt seeing the petrified eyes of her beloved daughter?

Agam and her teenage comrades Naama Levy, Daniella Gilboa, Liri Albag and Karina Ariev – on their first few days of compulsory national service as unarmed border observers – were the ‘lucky’ survivors of the massacre at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023.

After gleefully filming the bloodbath on their GoPro cameras, the terrorists relished sharing footage of Agam and the four other young women being taken into Gaza at gunpoint.

Perhaps the most distressing image of that day showed Naama, also then just 19, an aspiring diplomat who idolised Michelle Obama and volunteered to help build bridges with Palestinians.

In video filmed in Gaza and broadcast around the world, Naama, in bloodied tracksuit bottoms and with her hands tied behind her back, is dragged from the back of a Jeep by a heavily armed militant, her face etched with terror. Bystanders chant ‘Allahu Akbar’.

It is beyond any parent’s worst nightmare.

Israeli soldier Agam Berger was released after being held in Gaza by Hamas since the deadly October 7 2023 attack

 Israeli soldier Agam Berger was released after being held in Gaza by Hamas since the deadly October 7 2023 attack

This image taken from video provided by the Hostage Families Forum, shows a bloodied Agam Berger, right, after she was taken captive by the terrorist organisation

This image taken from video provided by the Hostage Families Forum, shows a bloodied Agam Berger, right, after she was taken captive by the terrorist organisation

Among her teenage comrades who were also taken hostage that day includes Naama Levy, who was among those freed by Hamas on January 25

Among her teenage comrades who were also taken hostage that day includes Naama Levy, who was among those freed by Hamas on January 25

A video showed Naama in blood-soaked pyjamas, dragged by her hair and thrown into a Jeep

A video showed Naama in blood-soaked pyjamas, dragged by her hair and thrown into a Jeep

Other images, taken from the terrorists’ own Telegram channels, were collated by Israeli intelligence and passed to the families as proof their daughters were not dead but were, in fact, being held hostage in Gaza – a terrifying comfort for Meirav, and Naama’s mother, Ayelet.

How desperate and powerless would you have felt, knowing your teenage girl was now in the hands of the most dangerous and evil of men? That there was nothing you could do about it, except imagine with every passing second what these men were capable of – alone with your child in the terror tunnels of Gaza?

It won’t surprise you to know that Meirav, Ayelet and the other girls’ mothers carefully guarded these appalling images of their daughters. Why would anyone want others to see such devastating pictures of their children?

But, after over 90 torturous days, they asked the Daily Mail to publish them in January last year.

Why? What desperation would drive a mother to share such photographs? They did so because, shamefully, the world had fallen silent.

The mothers had been sure that international condemnation of the hostage-taking would soon see their daughters returned to them. How wrong they were.

While Naama’s heroine, Michelle Obama, was quick to launch a ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ campaign for 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamic militants in Nigeria in 2014, there was no such outcry for the 250 plus hostages taken on October 7. The silence of celebrities and politicians, with a few notable exceptions, has been deafening.

The world has quite rightly questioned, interrogated and condemned Israel’s devastating response to Hamas’s atrocities, but little thought seems to have been given to the terror group’s barbaric first act on October 7.

Agam faced unimaginable torture at the hands of Hamas but her mother Meirav as well as those of her comrades remained to determined to bring the girls home

Agam faced unimaginable torture at the hands of Hamas but her mother Meirav as well as those of her comrades remained to determined to bring the girls home 

Karina Ariev was taken alongside Agam, Levy and others whilst  where they were completing compulsory national service as unarmed observers - she has since been released

Karina Ariev was taken alongside Agam, Levy and others whilst  where they were completing compulsory national service as unarmed observers – she has since been released

They were among the youngest women held hostage in Gaza, each turning 19 or 20 last year without those they love around them. Pictured is Daniel Gilboa who was freed on January 25

They were among the youngest women held hostage in Gaza, each turning 19 or 20 last year without those they love around them. Pictured is Daniel Gilboa who was freed on January 25

Karina Ariev was also taken captive alongside her fellow comrades Albag, Karina, Levy and Gilboa

Karina Ariev was also taken captive alongside her fellow comrades Albag, Karina, Levy and Gilboa 

The parents of Israeli hostage Agam Berger,(pictured on January 30) watch as their daughter is passed over to the Red Cross

The parents of Israeli hostage Agam Berger,(pictured on January 30) watch as their daughter is passed over to the Red Cross

In Israel, people cheered, clapped and whistled at a square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Berger's handover on big screens on January 30

In Israel, people cheered, clapped and whistled at a square in Tel Aviv where supporters of the hostages watched Berger’s handover on big screens on January 30 

Our report helped raise the profile of the five girls. The story showing images of them in captivity alongside pictures of them in happier times went viral and was taken to the Hague and the UN.

It played its own small part in Agam returning home yesterday, five days after Naama, Daniella, Liri and Karina were freed last Saturday – and nearly 400 long days since their mothers asked the world to look at their daughters’ faces as they pleaded with them to fight to bring them home.

Today they are, finally, home – words that at times we thought we might never say. But, as over 80 hostages remain, is it not time to ask why it has taken so long?

Why were their mothers forced to bare their tortured souls to the world for 15 insufferable months? Where was the outrage for their abducted young daughters? Who has marched for them?

How long until the remaining captives return to end this toxic, bloody war? And when will all the world wake up and condemn the evil of taking men, women and children hostage – simply because they are Jewish?