Former hostage Noga Weiss, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 and was released from captivity as part of the November 2023 deal, spoke to the Israeli media about her time in Hamas captivity and her great desire for her father to have a proper grave by Israel’s Memorial Day this year.
By Rachel Avraham
Former hostage Noga Weiss, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 and was released from captivity as part of the November 2023 deal, spoke to the Israeli media about her time in Hamas captivity and her great desire for her father to have a proper grave by Israel’s Memorial Day this year. “What I can say about my father is that they told me that he was murdered,” she told Kan Reshet Bet. “I cannot really digest this and begin to try to mourn so long as he is there. As far as I understand, he is not alive. Regardless, there is always hope that he will come back and I’ll be able to embrace him. Until Dad is here and all the hostages are here, we won’t really be able to have closure.”
Weiss told Arutz Sheva: “On the morning of October 7, we were in the bomb shelter, my parents and I. Basically they called my father up and he told us, ‘Okay, I’m going.’ Later we discovered that just a few minutes after he left the house, he had already been murdered and kidnapped to Gaza. He was declared missing for three months, and after that we understood that this is what had happened.”
In an interview with Keshet 12 about 10 months ago, Weiss went back to what used to be her home in Kibbutz Be’eri and said, “Hear, near all of the burn marks, this is my dad’s car. He managed to get into the club car, sat down and was murdered here. It was on the 86th day that they told us that he was murdered and his body was taken. He was considered missing until then.” According to her, “They took out the pavement bricks and found a bone. That was the proof that he was dead. They also found a video of him being taken from the cameras in Gaza. We know for certain that he was murdered here in the kibbutz and was taken.”
When asked about the recent agreement with Hamas, which saw 33 hostages, eight of them dead, released in exchange for thousands of living and dangerous terrorists, Weiss told Arutz Sheva, “I felt great happiness. Every hostage who returned is more air to breathe and more life returning – people reborn, entire families who were born anew. I was not surprised that the situation was so difficult – I know what I experienced for 50 days and I cannot imagine how it is, how they could continue to survive for such a long period afterwards.”
About 10 months ago, Weiss explained in quite detail the moments of horror leading up to her abduction, as well as the torments that she experienced in Hamas captivity. “This is the safe room where they did so many horrors,” she told Keshet 12. “Everything is burnt. They started shooting at the door, about 40 rounds, until they managed to get in. And all of this time, my mother and I were here, hearing everything. We saw the chatter on our WhatsApp groups and realized what was happening. People texting, ‘they’re burning our homes,’ and then the texts stopping.”
Weiss continued, “The second they came in, Mom told me to get under the bed because she thought that they would enter the safe room and shoot on site. So I got under the bed, they came, opened the safe room door, aiming their guns. They took her. I saw it all. I was here. As they take her, the dog followed and I heard gunshots. So I was sure that she was murdered. When they were taking my mother, she saw all of the houses on fire.” So, Noga thought her mother was murdered and her mother thought she left Noga to burn alive in the safe room.
According to Reshet 12, “The fire that the terrorists started is spreading fast. Noga realizes that if she stays under the bed, she will burn. But outside, the kibbutz is crawling with terrorists, so she had nowhere to run. Noga texts her sisters on the WhatsApp group; ‘They took Mom. They’re burning down the house.’ Meital asked her to try and leave. Noga says, ‘I can’t. The are here. They will hear me.’ They suggested that she try to exit via the window. She answered, ‘I can’t. I am afraid. The house is on fire.’ Meital begs, ‘Go out through the window. Leave quietly. Open the window, climb on the bed and jump out.’” Finally, Noga gets the courage to jump out but she responded to her sister, “I don’t know where to go. They’re everywhere.”
Noga then tried to run away, while at the same time hiding from the numerous terrorists that had entered into the kibbutz: “I was just trying to find a hiding place that was not on fire.” However, Noga is eventually captured, while her sisters Meital and Ma’ayan managed to evade capture for they were not at their parents home on October 7. Noga recounts the moment she was captured: “They tie my hands behind my back. I am alone. I see bodies next to me of people I know from the kibbutz and a few minutes later, they put me in the car. They drive through the breach in the fence to Gaza. Crowds, thousands, small children, were cheering, saying “well done” and putting their hands through the broken car’s windows to pull my hair or beat me.” Noga was then taken to one of the terrorists homes.
Weiss told the Times of Israel that when she was held hostage by Hamas, one of her captors wanted to marry her: “He gave me a ring on day 14 [in captivity], and I stayed with him until day 50. He told me, ‘Everyone will be released, but you will stay here with me and have my children.’” Asked how she responded, Noga told the Times of Israel, “I pretended to laugh so he wouldn’t shoot me in the head.”
But her mother Shiri — who was also kidnapped into Gaza on October 7 and reunited with her daughter after several days — was not willing to play along, the Times of Israel reported. According to the report, at first, Shiri tried to politely reject the proposal, but the Hamas captor did not seem to accept the rejection, so she yelled at him until he understood.
According to the Times of Israel, Noga was moved between various homes throughout her captivity, each time dressed in a hijab and told to hold the hand of her captor so onlookers would assume they were married and not Israeli hostages. “They brought cards for us to play with, and I told myself, ‘I’ll play with them and do whatever they want as long as they don’t shoot. Their moods changed so quickly. One minute they played with us and laughed, the next they’d come in with a gun. You always had to please them,” Noga said.
“People don’t understand the feeling of fear,” Noga told the Times of Israel. “I was 50 days, 24/7, with the thought that they would get tired of me and just shoot me or that they wouldn’t need me in the end, or that they would shoot us while we slept in the middle of the night.”
