Agam Berger was released by Hamas to Israel on Thursday morning. Photo courtesy of Israel Defense Forces/X
An Israeli hostage held for more than a year by Hamas in Gaza was released Thursday morning, Israeli officials said, marking the first of eight hostages held by the Iran-proxy militia expected to be released throughout the day.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement that it had received a hostage — later identified as 20-year-old Agam Berger — from the Red Cross, which had been transferred Berger by Hamas forces in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Advertisement
“Agam is home,” the IDF said on X.
Berger is the first of an expected eight hostages — three Israeli and five Thai — to be released by Hamas to Israel on Thursday as part of the maintained by fragile cease-fire that was established earlier this month.
According to The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, Berger was abducted from her northwestern Nahal Oz military base on Oct. 7, 2023, in Hamas’ brutal surprise attack on Israel.
Berger served as an observer on the base, where she arrived two days before the attack, it said.
Berger and the other seven hostages being released Thursday are among the 251 people who were taken from Israel by Hamas during its attack that instigated the 15-month war, in which Israel would decimate Gaza as it hunted the militant’s group leadership and searched for its kidnapped citizens. Advertisement
The fighting in Gaza stopped on Jan. 19 when the cease-fire went into effect. On that day, three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian captives were released.
A few days later, a second exchange occurred, with Hamas releasing four females soldiers who, like Berger, were stationed at Nahal Oz, and Israeli releasing 200 Palestinians prisoners.
The IDF said those returned to Israel undergo an initial medical assessment.
“The commanders and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces salute and embrace the returning hostages as they come back home,” it said on X.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video to X of Berger’s family watching as she was transferred to the Red Cross.
Video: Agam Berger's family, at the initial reception facility, watching as Agam is transferred to the Red Cross. pic.twitter.com/jgbwm9T6yj— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 30, 2025
This is a developing story.
