Watching the terrified faces of the four bloodstained teenage girls being paraded by Hamas gunmen was beyond their parents’ worst nightmare.
The haunting images were taken just hours after they were kidnapped and Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa and Agam Berger appeared shadows of their former selves.
Three months have passed since that recording of them lined up against a wall in Gaza, their hands bound behind them – and still they are in captivity.
With negotiations stalling following the collapsed ceasefire, the parents of the youngest female hostages are today sharing the heart-wrenching pictures as they demand their immediate release.
They are appealing to mothers and fathers around the world to speak up as horrific new details emerge that some female captives have been raped at gunpoint or had limbs amputated.
‘Imagine if it was your daughter, your little girl in their hands,’ Daniela’s mother Orly, 38, said. ‘What would you imagine?’
Smiles to horror: The battered and bloody image of Karina Ariev, 19, in a Hamas video
Plan: Lili Albag, 18, wanted to travel the world before being taken on October 7
Liri’s father Eli, 54, said: ‘Think for one day that you don’t have connection with your daughter and you know they are in the hands of bad people. Then tell me what you would say after 90 days. This is killing us. Every minute is like an hour.’
The girls were snatched from Nahal Oz, near the Gaza border, in the first hours of the Hamas attack on October 7 in which 1,200 died and scores of women were raped.
READ MORE: ‘I was afraid of being raped – that was my biggest fear’: Mia Schem reveals daily torment of Hamas captor who only refrained from raping her in darkened room because his wife and children were next door
The first sign of life came when Hamas shared a short clip of them lined up in Gaza with other videos showing them bundled into trucks at gunpoint.
‘We understood exactly what they did on October 7,’ said Mrs Gilboa, whose daughter Daniela, 19, is a talented musician who dreamt of becoming a singer.
‘If they are capable of this, what are they are doing for 90 days? I don’t want to imagine what is going on.’ When the last ceasefire broke down on November 30, Liri, 18, from Yahiv, central Israel, Karina, 19, from Jerusalem, Daniela, from Petah Tikva, central Israel, and Agam, 19, from Holon, central Israel, were left behind.
With tensions mounting after Israel assassinated a Hamas leader in Lebanon, there are fears they are being forgotten.
The parents are helping each other cope. ‘We cry together a lot. We speak a lot, we understand each other,’ said mother-of-four Shira Albag, 51, an account manager whose youngest daughter Liri planned to travel the world.
But horror stories have emerged from those who have been freed. Shlomi Berger’s eldest daughter, Agam, is a gifted violinist who had a promising future. ‘We heard about the sexual abuses,’ the father-of-four, 52, said.
‘As a father, I can’t imagine these things. The family’s torn apart.’
Karina’s only sibling, Sasha, 24, spoke on behalf of their mother, Ira, 44, a medical secretary. ‘It’s misery, it’s helpless,’ she said. ‘My mother’s in a terrible situation, she doesn’t know what to do.’
There was a sighting by Chen Goldstein-Almog, 49, who saw some of the girls in a flat in Gaza during her 51 days as a hostage.
Gifted: Agam Berger, 19, is shown bloodied in a video released by Hamas
Dreams: Daniela Gilboa, 19, hopes to become a singer
‘Some of them are close in age to my daughters and I hugged them so hard,’ she said. But the social worker shared harrowing details of other female captives.
‘There were girls who spent 50 days and more alone,’ she said. ‘When they were sad, crying, their captors would stroke them and touch them. They described accounts of sexual abuse under gunpoint on a regular basis.
‘Some of the girls were badly wounded and haven’t been getting proper medical care. Gunshot wounds, even lost limbs. They said they can cope with the disability but not with the manner they were constantly violated.’
Of the four girls, Mrs Goldstein-Almog said: ‘They are strong and haven’t lost hope. But they were on the edge five weeks ago when we separated from them. They need to be released. They cannot be there for one more day.’