When the videos of Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher were released on Sunday, during their release, it was difficult not to realize that they all had braided hair.
During an interview with KAN News later that day, released hostage Chen Goldstein-Almog, who was released more than a year ago with her three children, hinted towards the fact that all of the released women had braids.
"Maybe there is some hostage, back in Gaza, that is trying to send out a message to the world by braiding released hostages' hair," Goldstein-Almog said. She wouldn't name the hostage who might be braiding their hair out of fear for the captive. However, this information has already been published in the past year.
Last year, after the hostages' release, the Hidabroot channel ran a report in which Merav Berger, the mother of Agam Berger, was recorded saying that her daughter "braided the hair of the other women before their release."
"It [the braider] was Agam who was braiding the hair of the girls she knows are being released while she stays behind."
'They took care of us'
KAN News correspondent Carmela Menashe reported on the hostages' braids shortly after the first round of hostage releases in December of 2023.
The report stated that: "One of the hostages released as part of the agreement with Hamas was photographed on the night of her release with neatly braided hair," the report stated.
KAN reported that the 17-year-old hostage told an IDF officer after her release that "female soldiers held with her in captivity braided her hair on the day of the release."
In August, Agam Goldstein-Almog, Chen's daughter, spoke at an event in honor of Berger's birthday. The young Goldstein-Almog told Berger about a conversation with her father immediately after being released: "Nine months ago, I called your father on the way to the helicopter in Hazerim.
I wished him Happy Birthday, just like you asked me to. I still had the braids you made me when I called him. Your parents didn’t believe me. And I couldn't believe how much they didn’t know anything."
She added: "Today is your birthday, and today must be very hard for you."
However, the other female soldiers who are being held in captivity with Berger could also have done the braids.
After the first round of hostage releases ended, the testimonies from those freed shed light on the hostages' conditions in captivity and provided signs of life for the families of those still held in Gaza.
In an article for N12, Yoni Levy, the father of Naama Levy, another soldier still in captivity, said he "learned from released hostages that they had seen his daughter and were with her before their release."
He shared that some of the freed hostages called him after their release and said that she was injured but alive.
"The first feeling is like you can finally breathe. You take a moment to feel relief," Yoni Levy recalled. His daughter's abduction was captured in a video that has become a symbol of the brutality of the events. "But that relief lasted only a few hours, and then the testimonies started coming in."
Naama Levy, who was 19 years old at the time, is supposed to be released in the upcoming hostage releases as part of the ceasefire. "There are many young girls with her—teenagers—and we all understand their vulnerability, the potential harm they might face," Yoni Levy explained.
For Naama's Levy family, there was another glimmer of hope. When some of the children returned from captivity, their hair was braided in a style familiar to her parents. "Maybe it's just stories we tell ourselves," Yoni admitted. "Naama participated in many triathlons during her youth, and this is exactly the style of braids she and her teammates used to wear," he told N12 in 2023.
Naama Levy and Agam Berger are just two of five IDF observers who are expected to be released in the upcoming hostage deal. The others are Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, and Daniella Gilboa.
Abducted from the Nahal Oz base on October 7, the welfare of the female soldiers has been a major concern for the hostages’ families and much of Israeli society.
A video made public of the young women in May caused outrage as the terrorists referred to the women as “sabaya.” Depending on intonation and pronunciation, the term can mean either a young woman or a sex slave.