In an interview with IDF Radio, hostage survivor Daniella Gilboa recounted the moments of terror she experienced on the morning of October 7th, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel and entered, among many other locations, the Nahal Oz outpost — where Gilboa and her friends were serving as IDF lookouts.
Describing the feeling of absolute helplessness that she and her fellow soldiers experienced, Gilboa recalled the chaos inside the mobile shelter:
“I opened my eyes when a grenade went off, because at first they were throwing grenades, and everything turned yellow. I looked to the right and saw Noa. She said to me, ‘They’ve shot me.’ She was literally screaming, ‘They’ve shot me.’ Looking to the left, I saw all the girls next to me already crawling backward.”
“I automatically started crawling. We were all crawling back. What else could we have done? They were shooting, they were throwing grenades — what could we do? After that, I closed my eyes again… You don’t want to see this.”
Gilboa recalled how she tried to feign death in an attempt to survive, and how she heard one of the terrorists tell her, “You’re going to Gaza.” The sense of helplessness, she said, was total, as her friends were murdered around her.
Nine female soldiers — Gilboa’s friends — were killed in the Nahal Oz outpost that morning. Seven others, including Gilboa, were handcuffed and held captive for about three hours while Hamas terrorists overran the base, before being abducted to the Gaza Strip.
Of the seven kidnapped female observers, Noa Marciano was murdered in captivity, Ori Megidish was rescued in a military operation, and the remaining five — Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Elbag, Naama Levi, and Agam Berger — were released from captivity after more than 470 days, in January 2025.