Chen Goldstein Almog was taken hostage with three of her children – Agam, Gal and Tal – from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7. Her husband Nadav and eldest daughter Yam were murdered. Chen and her three children were released as part of a deal with Hamas.
Speaking to The New York Times, Chen said that, “When we were about to be released, one of the captors threatened, 'Don't go back to your kibbutz. Don't go back to a place that is so close to Gaza. Go to Tel Aviv or somewhere further away – because we will come back.'"
Chen said that she replied: "The next time you come, don't throw a grenade, just knock on the door."
"The strangest thing were the long, almost intimate, conversations that Chen held with her captors," she recalled, adding that they "talked about their families, their lives and the dangers." In the interview she said that one of the captors even apologized for the murder of her husband and one of her daughters by other Hamas members.
"It's a mistake. It's against the Quran," he said, and she replied: "I didn't react. I didn't think it was safe to express negative feelings."
She also said that she and her children were kept most of the time in a room in an apartment, and the windows were almost always closed, except for a short while in the early morning hours. They were also moved around to additional apartments, tunnels, a mosque, and a bombed supermarket.
According to Goldstein Almog, it is possible that because she was a social worker, she knew how to attract these conversations, as they were the only way she could make sure she and her children were safe.
Her Hamas captors taught her son Gal 250 words in Arabic and bought him a notebook to study. She said that she and the prisoners often discussed what to eat. They mostly survived on pita bread and feta cheese. Sometimes they were also given some vegetables.