Israeli hostage Naama Levy’s mother’s torment: ‘my little girl in hands of monsters’
The execution of six Israeli hostages has sent a dagger through the families of the remaining captives.
First came the rumour, a brief snippet of news that tore through unofficial channels to the families of the Israeli hostages. Six bodies had been released. There were no names and no details but the information sent rockets of fear into homes around the globe where loved ones live in a tormented state of dread.
“Six bodies … this was the first thing we heard, and of course the level of anxiety goes up,’’ said Sydney man Zack Shachar, who takes to the streets each Friday with a small band of supporters to read aloud the names of the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas, including his cousin Naama Levy, 20.
Then came more news via this torturous drip feed of information. “We heard, unofficially, that they were talking about young people. At that point I had to stop what I was doing and sit down,’’ Mr Shachar said.
By last weekend it was official. Israel confirmed the deaths of six hostages taken in the October 7 attacks, saying they were executed by Hamas terrorists shortly before their bodies were found in tunnels under Rafah, southern Gaza.
“When the names started to come I realised that it was young people, but Naama wasn’t on the list,’’ Mr Shachar said, struggling to describe his reaction. There was no happiness, just growing alarm.
The murders opened a dangerous new chapter in the 11-month crisis, with Hamas releasing final video messages from the six, along with an image of sand running through an hourglass and the message “time is running out’.’
Naama’s mother, Ayelet Levy Shachar, tried to describe the competing emotions she felt when the names of the dead, those “loved souls’’, were confirmed.
“It is so hard to put in words the terror, anguish, pain and panic that I am feeling,’’ she wrote in a message released to The Weekend Australian. “How can I feel such utter sadness but utter relief at the same time?”
Naama’s plight gained widespread publicity after distressing footage released by Hamas shortly after October 7 showed the young surveillance officer with her arms tied, her ankles cut and the crotch of her trousers soaked in blood, being dragged by her hair into a vehicle by a gunman.
“I have friends in Palestine,’’ she told her captors. She’d been part of a Hands of Peace program designed to foster mutual understanding from young people on both sides of the conflict.
The videos pile further agony on her family. They contain images that can’t be unseen. “Your bloodied sweatpants. Your handcuffed hands. The monster dragging you by the hair and forcing you into a car. Where that car took you and what’s happened to you since, the mind wanders down a cruel, dark path. It’s too much for a mother to bear,’’ Ayelet said in a message on her daughter’s 20th birthday in June.
The fun loving and athletic young woman had just started her military service when she was seized along with four other young women from an Israeli observation post near the Gaza border.
Since then, her family has waited in hope for any updates. Hostages released in the November ceasefire told them they had briefly seen Naama. “They said she was wounded in the legs but standing and walking and talking,’’ her mother said at the time. “They told us that she is a hero and amazing, and went through very difficult things and survived them.”
A photograph from the early days of her captivity and released by her family in July showed her face bruised and swollen. Her father, Yoni Levy, said then that the latest information was that she was being held in the tunnels and was alive. Her mother believes this is still the case. “My little girl is there; my daughter is alive and held in the hands of these monsters,” she said this week.
“My child. This fills my broken heart and thoughts every second.”
Israel says the six hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Carmel Gat, 40, Almog Sarusi, 27, Alexander Lobanov, 32, and Ori Danino, 25 – were brutally murdered by Hamas fighters shortly before they were found by Israeli soldiers. Failure to reach a ceasefire deal would result in more hostage deaths, the terror organisation warned, taunting families with another message: “Bodies in black bags, that’s how we’ll return your kids.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the six hostages had been shot in the back of the head as he stood defiant against calls to immediately reach a deal with Hamas to release the remaining hostages. News of the six deaths unleashed growing anger towards the government, deepening divisions in the country and prompted tens of thousands of protesters to take to Israel’s streets over multiple nights demanding a hostage deal.
Gil Dickmann, cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat, was among the protesters in Tel Aviv. “It’s horrible we had to pay the price with Carmel’s life, but I really hope that this is a turning point that the Israeli public can’t have this anymore and that the Israeli government will understand that they have to sign this deal immediately,” he said. “We’ll do everything so that all hostages will be with us. And if the leaders don’t want to sign a deal, we’ll make them.”
Of the 240 people abducted on October 7, hopes are still held for at least 63 people who have not been released, rescued, or confirmed among the dead. Their families live in hope. Mr Shachar said they cannot be forgotten. While Naama’s family in Israel engage with Israeli politicians, do media interviews and attend rallies calling for the hostages to be freed, her family in the US and Australia try to do their bit from afar.
That’s why he takes to the streets of Sydney each Friday with a small group of supporters to read aloud the names of those who were abducted. “That’s the minimum that we can do here,’’ he said. “It’s not political. There are no flags. It’s just about the hostages.’’ He said the small event usually attracted public support, bar one ugly confrontation last month with a man who was removed by police.
“There was that one incident where someone tried to approach us and a couple of people have yelled ‘Free Palestine’ but most of the responses that we get are positive,’’ Mr Shachar said.
In her message to supporters in Australia, Naama’s mother Ayelet urged people to do what they could. “I urge all of you to take action and put pressure for my daughter’s release. She is alive, she is suffering, she is in danger every second. We must secure the agreement for the hostages’ release. For some dear loved souls it is too late.’’
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