Kidnapping of Liri Albag

Liri Albag was an 18-year-old Israeli soldier serving as an observer at the Nahal Oz outpost when Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack, known as Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Albag had been born in Matan to Shira and Eli Elbag, had three siblings, and lived in Moshav Yarhiv before enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces. She had completed her lookout training only two days before the attack began.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Albag was off duty and asleep in the sleeping quarters with fellow observers Naama Levy and Noam Abramowitz when a rocket attack on the base woke them at 6:30 a.m. They fled to a bomb shelter with other off-duty female personnel. Hamas fighters stormed the shelter, killing most of the occupants and capturing seven survivors, including Albag. She was loaded into a military jeep along with fellow observers Agam Berger, Karina Ariev, and Daniella Gilboa and taken into the Gaza Strip.

In captivity, Albag was initially held with other captured observers in an apartment before being separated, after two days, from Ariev and Gilboa. She spent the remainder of her captivity with Agam Berger, at times joined by other hostages including Naama Levy, Keith and Aviva Siegel, the Almog-Goldstein family, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Amit Soussana, and Dafna and Ella Elyakim. The women were initially held in private homes, including a luxury villa, where they performed domestic labor for their captors. After 40 days they were moved to underground tunnels, where Albag described being confined in a roughly 2×2 meter cage with four other young women and given minimal daily food rations. According to former hostage Amit Soussana, Albag helped save her life by convincing captors that Soussana was not an IDF officer. In March 2024, the IDF reported finding Albag's DNA in a house in Gaza. On January 4, 2025, Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades published a video of Albag speaking about Israeli military operations.

Albag's father, Eli, became a visible participant in protests calling for the hostages' release, and reported facing harassment and hostility over his advocacy, including an incident in September 2024 outside a Likud event that was condemned by an Israeli lawmaker.

On January 24, 2025, Hamas announced that Albag and three other female soldiers would be released the next day under the January 2025 Gaza ceasefire hostage exchange, in which Israel released 50 Palestinian prisoners for each female soldier freed. On January 25, 2025, Hamas handed over Albag, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, and Daniella Gilboa to the Red Cross in Gaza City. After her release, Albag became a public advocate for remaining hostages and announced in June 2025 her intention to resume IDF service.