Redeemed Hamas hostage Liri Albag will return to her Israel Defense Forces service this week, in a “significant” capacity, her father said on Monday.
Albag was abducted by Hamas from the military’s Nahal Oz outpost during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, and was kept in captivity in Gaza for 477 days. She was released as part of a ceasefire deal in January.
“She’s not scared of anything,” her father, Eli Albag, told Israel’s Reshet Bet radio station, according to Israeli public broadcaster Kan News, which operates the station. “For m,e she is a hero, and I stand behind any decision she takes.”
He went on to say that since regaining her freedom, she had focused on travel and rehabilitation. However, he continued, she “wants a significant role” and “she knows exactly what she wants.”
Feelings in the family are still torn, as 50 hostages—alive and dead—remain in captivity, he added.
He urged the government to strike another deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages. “If the war with Lebanon and Iran could be ended in one day, we can do this with Hamas as well,” he said, according to Kan.
On Saturday, Liri Albag spoke at the weekly Tel Aviv rally for the remaining hostages.
“This week marks five months at home, five months of freedom, five months of being alive,” she was quoted as saying by the Israel Hayom daily.
“But these are also five more months that my brothers and sisters are still there, in hell, counting every second and waiting for redemption,” she added.
Albag shared some of her experiences in captivity, recalling how she and her fellow female IDF colleagues would walk for hours in the streets of Gaza covered in hijabs and jalabiyas in the simmering heat.
“We pass through holes in the walls—from house to house—until we reach a strange structure, something between an empty mosque and an abandoned library,” she recounted.
“In a small room: two green chairs, a single bed with dirty sheets, a floor mat, and bottles of water. On one of the chairs lies a giant butcher knife. My heart drops. The terrorist picks up the knife and says: ‘You’ve seen Gaza from above—now you’re going down to underground Gaza.’ The rug is lifted, a hole in the ground, a broken ladder [to go down a tunnel shaft],” she continued.
Albag, 19, was released by Hamas on January 25 alongside fellow IDF soldiers Karina Ariev, 20, Daniella Gilboa, 20, and Naama Levy, 20.
Following her release, Albag’s family emphasized that while she and the other female IDF hostages experienced “insane things that are hard to tell everything about” during their 15 months in Hamas captivity, they are afraid to speak because dozens of hostages have yet to be freed.
“Dad, there are 2 million terrorists there, make no mistake. I sat with children aged eight and four who were cursing ‘the Jews,’” Albag told her father after her release, Israel’s 103FM Radio reported in January.