{"id":1964,"date":"2025-03-23T20:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T15:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ainews.prativad.com\/index.php\/finding-god-in-gaza-former-israeli-hostage-found-faith-to-help-her-survive-hamas-terror\/"},"modified":"2025-03-23T20:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T15:02:17","slug":"finding-god-in-gaza-former-israeli-hostage-found-faith-to-help-her-survive-hamas-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ainews.prativad.com\/index.php\/finding-god-in-gaza-former-israeli-hostage-found-faith-to-help-her-survive-hamas-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding God in Gaza: Former Israeli hostage found faith to help her survive Hamas terror"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

After 482 days in Hamas captivity, Agam Berger was finally home. The world first saw her in the horrific footage from Oct. 7, 2023<\/a> \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“The living and the dead,” she said in a trembling voice in the Synagogue, “We won\u2019t rest until they all return.”<\/p>\n

CEASEFIRE OVER AS ISRAEL STRIKES GAZA AFTER HAMAS REFUSED TO RELEASE HOSTAGES, OFFICIALS SAY<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 long before she knew whether her daughter was alive. “We grew up traditional, but not religious. Agam didn\u2019t keep Shabbat before. But somehow, she found God \u2013 in Gaza, of all places.”<\/p>\n

She said what kept her daughter going was faith and identity. “They took her body,” she told Israeli media, “but they couldn\u2019t take her soul and identity.”<\/p>\n

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\u2019d hear voices\u2014Israelis 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Agam’s mother later revealed that her daughter had dreamed of a siddur \u2013 a Jewish prayer book \u2013 just days earlier. “Then it arrived,” Merav said. “How do you explain that? That\u2019s not chance. That\u2019s faith.”<\/p>\n

With that book, she began marking Jewish time. “We had a watch at first,” she told Israeli public radio. “That\u2019s how we knew when it was Shabbat, when it was Yom Kippur. I fasted. On Passover, I refused bread. I asked for corn flour\u2014and they brought it. In a strange way, they respected my religion.”<\/p>\n

FREED ISRAELI HOSTAGE SPEAKS FOR THE FIRST TIME ABOUT HIS 505 DAYS OF SURVIVING HAMAS HELL<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

As the months dragged on, the conditions worsened. Hamas guards rotated <\/a>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\u2026 we didn\u2019t know who we could trust.”<\/p>\n

She tried to stay hopeful, telling herself she\u2019d be home before her younger brother\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Even as rumors of a hostage deal began to circulate in early 2025, she didn\u2019t let herself hope. “We heard people talking, but we didn\u2019t think it would happen for us,” she said.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 24, Liri Elbag was taken away to film a release video. “They told her she was filming a video \u2013 but not that she was going home,” Agam said. “I waited for her. I had made her birthday cards. Then someone told me, \u2018Your friends are already home.\u2019”<\/p>\n

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\u2019t let me take anything \u2013 not our notebooks, not the drawings, nothing,” she recalled in an interview with Israeli public radio.<\/p>\n

Agam\u2019s 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.
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bar, the younger sister, had planned not to enlist. But after hearing that Agam had promised her fellow hostages she\u2019d 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.”<\/p>\n

Now back home, Agam is surrounded by friends, visitors and endless attention. But she\u2019s not at peace \u2013 not while others remain in captivity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the synagogue this week, Agam made that call loudly and publicly. “We won\u2019t rest,” she said, “until every soul \u2013 living or dead \u2013 comes home.”<\/p>\n

As her mother put it: “This is the Jewish mission. There\u2019s nothing more sacred. It\u2019s our right to exist \u2013 and our rebirth as a people \u2013 depends on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“God brought Agam home,” her mother said. “Now we have a duty to bring the others back too.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty-year-old former hostage Agam Berger survived 482 days in Gaza held by Hamas terrorists. 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