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‘2 million terrorists’ in Gaza, released hostage tells family

“Children aged 8 and 4 were cursing ‘the Jews,’” Liri Albag said.

Former captive Liri Albag and her parents at the IDF's Re'im Camp near the Gaza Strip, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit.
Former captive Liri Albag and her parents at the IDF’s Re’im Camp near the Gaza Strip, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

Liri Albag, the 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces lookout released on Saturday after 477 days as a captive of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, told her parents that there are “two million terrorists” in the coastal enclave, Israel’s 103FM Radio reported on Monday.

“Dad, there are two million terrorists there, make no mistake. I sat with children aged 8 and 4 who were cursing ‘the Jews,’” Albag was cited as having told her father since being released as part of the truce deal.

According to a 2024 estimate, 2,141,643 Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip.

Albag’s family has emphasized that while she and the three other female IDF hostages released on Saturday experienced “insane things that are hard to tell everything about” during their 15 months in Hamas captivity, they are afraid to speak due to the fact that 90 hostages have yet to be freed from Gaza.

Former hostage Mia Shem, who was released during the previous truce with Hamas in November 2023, told Israel’s Channel 13 News channel in an interview on Dec. 28, 2023, “Everyone there [in Gaza] is a terrorist.

“Entire families are under Hamas. I realized I was staying with a family. I started to ask myself, why am I in a family home? Why are there children here? Why is there a wife here?” Shem said. “I went through a Shoah.”

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