"Krone" interview
“The abducted girl is my daughter”
A new video shows how barbarically the Hamas terrorists treated abducted female soldiers on October 7. One of the girls in the video is 19-year-old Naama Levy. The "Krone" spoke to her mother.
Ayelet Levy Shachar has been going through hell for eight months. Her daughter Naama was attacked by Hamas assailants together with other girls during the attacks in Israel on October 7 and abducted in her pyjamas. A new video shows the girls, covered in blood, pleading for their lives and being humiliated by their kidnappers. Their families have decided to publish the images to show the world what the Gaza offensive is all about. In an interview with the "Krone" newspaper, Naama's mother talks about the worst day of her life - and explains what she hopes to gain from the negotiations for her daughter's life.
Kronen Zeitung: Ms. Levy Shachar, can you describe what you felt when you saw the new footage of your daughter's abduction a few weeks ago?
Levy Shachar: We received the three-minute footage from the Israeli armed forces at the beginning of April. At first I wasn't sure if I even wanted to see it. One of the other mothers who had already seen the video then sat down with me and we watched the footage together.
Naama's mother Ayelet about the first time she saw the video:
How did that make you feel?
It was important for me to see that. The girls are in the middle of a terrorist attack, but they are strong. I said to myself "That's my Naama!" She was so close, so real. Bloodied and hurt, but she was talking, it was her. I hadn't heard her talk for so long. And I was proud of her, of her strength. At the same time, I hated the men standing around her. It was very difficult to watch. But I was also able to draw strength from it.
What kind of personality does your daughter have? Is she quiet and reserved, is she very robust, how would you describe her?
My Naama is quiet. Rather introverted. But also very stubborn. She was very focused on her sport at school and was very punctual. But never someone who wanted to be the center of attention.
Do you remember the last time they spoke to her?
That was the evening before the attacks, a Friday. She had only arrived at the Nahal Oz base from which she was abducted the day before. She had only just moved into a bed there. I wanted to visit her the day after. She couldn't talk for long on the phone, she just asked me to bring a few T-shirts and, above all, food (laughs). The next day, shortly before seven in the morning, we wrote again.
What was in the news?
I asked her what was going on because the sirens had gone off about an hour away. She just wrote back that she and the others were in a bunker. And I've never heard from my daughter since.
Did she know the other girls she was with?
She had met them a few weeks earlier at the beginning of her military service and immediately became very good friends with one of her comrades. One of the group was killed right next to them.
When you wrote to your daughter for the last time, did you have a feeling of fear? Did you sense that something very serious was happening?
No, not at all at that time. Nobody knew what was happening at seven in the morning. I played Monopoly with my sons and it wasn't until half past ten that I got a call from Naama's father. He had already received the first video of Naama in a Telegram group, showing her being pulled out of the Hamas kidnappers' car. That was the moment when my world turned completely upside down. Since then, everything has changed.
Naama's mother remembers October 7:
How did it change your life?
I was in shock for the first few weeks. I didn't do much, people kept coming by. After a while I started working again, I'm a general practitioner and I thought: I'm needed. I also wanted to do something, I was completely restless. I now work three times a week, I've stopped doing a few other things. Everything has changed, I now live with this chronic pain.
Do you know anything about your daughter's kidnappers? Who they are, whether they are still alive or anything like that?
No.
Would you like to know?
I don't know. In the first video there is a terrorist, this horrible monster who holds my daughter and shoots her in the air. I'd like to know if they caught him. Probably some of the terrorists are dead. The videos of my daughter are from cameras on the bodies of Hamas attackers. I assume that the army caught them and that's how they got the footage.
What are you hoping for now? For a rescue mission by the army? Or negotiations?
I want my daughter back. And I hope for negotiations, because a hostage rescue mission would be far too risky. This is a terrorist attack that is still going on, so far. I'm afraid Israel will have to negotiate with these criminals.
Naama's mother on the decision to release the video:
Was it a difficult decision to release the new video of your daughter?
We parents were shown the video by the army because we had the right to it. We didn't want to publish it at first because our girls are shown in very harsh and humiliating moments. But at some point we were frustrated that there was no negotiation and we wanted to remind the government and the public that our girls are still being held hostage. You should see their faces, their eyes. These are young girls, kidnapped in their pajamas, completely helpless, doing everything they can just to stay alive. And that's what the world should see.
Have you already planned your daughter's return in your mind? What you will say to her, what you will do with her first?
I think about that all the time. I plan all the time, I talk to her all the time in my mind. I try to imagine what she would like. She's been through so much, maybe she's changed too. I don't even know what to expect when she returns. I know my Naama, she would probably need her space. Her privacy, and her mom and dad to process it all. My plan is to just listen to her, what she needs, and live one day at a time. Sometimes I just want to sit in the car with her and sing like we used to. Or go back to the sea and watch the waves. Cook her something to eat, all the normal things we used to do together every day. And then I also have big plans, I want to see the whole world with her, travel a lot.
Where do you want to go?
We even went to Austria with her once, to Salzburg and Vienna. In Salzburg we did the whole "Sound of Music" thing. I was just looking at the photos from back then the other day, it was all so perfect. I want it to be that perfect again.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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