Released hostage Karina Ariev posted on Wednesday photos showing her taking down a poster of herself at the Oranim intersection in Jerusalem.
“On 07.10.2023, my world was destroyed,” she wrote on Instagram. “My friends were murdered before my eyes, and I was kidnapped to Gaza. On 25.01.2025, I was brought home, I got my life back.”
On October 7, Ariev, who was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz base along with fellow IDF observers Naama Levy, Daniella Gilboa, and Liri Albag, was able to repel a grenade that the terrorists had hurled at her. During the terrorists’ massacre, she pretended she was dead. However, a terrorist began pulling her hand to ascertain whether she was alive.
After understanding that she was alive, the terrorists began handcuffing her and brought her to Gaza. “I survived for my family and for my friends so that I could tell their stories, fight for them together with their families, and commemorate them,” she wrote.
“I was lucky to survive, and that’s not something to take for granted. I will do everything to be worthy of it.”
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The poster Ariev took down in Jerusalem had a photo of her along with the phrase, “Waiting for you and all the hostages at home,” which was then replaced when she was released to say, “Karina is home. We are waiting for all the hostages at home.”
“The sign in the pictures is one of the first that was hung for me,” she wrote. “This sign was up for 477 days at the Oranim intersection in Jerusalem. Yesterday, I had the honor and privilege, along with my cousin Anna, my sister Sash, and the rabbi of the Kol HaNeshama congregation, Oded, to take down the sign.”
New sign
Ariev replaced this old poster with one saying, “Karina returned home. We are waiting for everyone to return.”
“Over 500 days and there are still hostages in Gaza,” Ariev finishes off the post. “Hanging a sign calling for the return of all, which will remind all the thousands of people passing by the intersection of the reality that must change, is one of my first steps in the fight for you to return home as soon as possible, until the last hostage.”