Ayelet Shahar-Levy, whose daughter Naama was abducted to Gaza during the events of October 7, wrote a touching personal column for the American media outlet "The Free Press." In a column published Friday night, the mother referred to a video of her daughter distributed by Hamas, in which she is seen being taken in a terrorists' van with her clothes stained with blood.
In a column titled "The woman you see in this video is my daughter," Shahar Levy wrote: "You saw the video of my daughter, Naama Levy, everyone saw it. She was seen dragged by her long hair from the jeep in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip, with her gray pants covered in blood. You may have seen the cuts on her ankle, that she was limping, injured and frightened. I, her mother, am helpless in these moments of terror."
Shahar-Levy, in normal times a family doctor who also serves as the doctor of Israel's women's soccer teams, also addressed what her family went through on that Black Saturday, and since that day.
"On October 7, she was sleeping at the Nahal Oz outpost when she woke up to the chaotic sound of a barrage of missiles. At seven o'clock in the morning, she sent me a WhatsApp message: 'We're in the war room, I've never heard anything like it.' That was the last time I heard from her."
"Before that day, every video our family took of Naama was joyful – dancing with friends, laughing with her three brothers and just enjoying life. Naama is only 19, but she will always be my baby. A girl who truly believes in the best interests of all people. She loves athletics and dreams of a career in diplomacy, and her greatest passion is helping those in need. As a child, she was a member of a delegation called Hands of Peace, which brought together young Americans, Israelis and Palestinians to promote global social change. But now, one video, which is not entirely representative of the life she led until October 7, is the way the world knows her."
Shahar-Levy addressed the readers and concluded: "What would you do if your daughter was held hostage by rapists and violent murderers for two months? As a mother, I just worry: Did my daughter's kidnappers give her clean clothes to change or is she in the same bloody sweatpants she was wearing when she was kidnapped?"
She added: "The longer my daughter is held captive and the more violence she suffers, the more likely she is to suffer lifelong PTSD consequences. The 17 hostages are not bargaining chips for negotiations by diplomats, they are girls, and one of them is mine. My cry should be the cry of mothers all over the world, bring her home now."
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