E04: Bearing Witness-"The Woman in the Hamas Video Is My Daughter"

Dr Ayelet Levy Shachar bears witness, whose daughter Naama is in Hamas Captivity Since October 7th, 2023

Naama Shachar Being Dragged In Gaza & Wounded In the Legs

Bearing Witness: The Profiles In Horror & Courage Series is a witness-by-witness rendition of what happened on October 7 and afterward.

I will be releasing these, one at a time, mixed in with the other posts from The View From Israel Newsletter.

Why?

Many have forgotten or chosen to ignore what occurred on October 7 and afterward. And history demands these be recorded and put in the annals of the war. Additionally, many do not have the patience to go through YouTube videos and listen to the inane advertisements every 5 minutes. Or we turn our brains off. Perhaps, in writing, it will help.

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These are the rules for what you will read in the series:

1. The English is far from perfect. Remember, these are people who, for the most part, are not native English speakers.

2. In editing the transcripts, there is a limit to how much one wants to remove from the person’s original voice. It is a balance that takes time. So you will notice that though some sentences and paragraphs could read much better, the wording was left as is, with some minor corrections so that the reader will feel the original voice, horror, and fear.

3. There is no natural order to which witness I place first, second, and so on.

4. I have eyeballed the text and run it through Grammarly to catch the blatant mistakes and problems.

5. The paragraph structure may be off as well. It is difficult to put a transcription into an entirely correct English structure. Dividing paragraphs correctly is nearly impossible, even with Grammarly AI and other tools.

6. I have, in no way, shape, manner, or form, add any comments or remarks to these testimonies. In a place where a Hebrew word is used, you will see: (ex. by the editor: “and here will be the explanation”) or [explanation in the brackets]. That is the extent of any remarks.

7. I left some spoken delays, such as “um” and “uh” in. This is to show that the document is a transcript of someone speaking and bearing witness.

8. You will catch misspellings, wrong sentences and word usage, no capitalization, run-on sentences, misplaced periods, etc. This is not meant to be an edited piece for the NYT or a Newsletter. It is raw. It is as real as life gets. It is bearing witness.

9. There is usually an interviewer as well who sometimes asks questions. I have tried to put those questions into separate paragraphs to the best of my ability.

10. I have also included the accompanying Video of the person bearing witness at the bottom of the piece.

11. None of this is made up. None of this is AI. You decide.

12. One final point. We all put the share, comment, and subscribe buttons in our Newsletter. In this case, I am, without shame and with “chutzpah,” asking you to at least share the posts from this series on all your social networks, with all your friends, and anywhere you think it may be read. I know this is my POV, but I do not see why there is a question of why there should not be at the very least 100K subscribers just to read this series. Perhaps that is hubris or wishful thinking on my part. I will accept that.

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The Video of Naama being dragged into Gaza:

Katie Couric talks with Dr Ayelet Levy Shachar, whose daughter Naama was taken hostage by Hamas over 100 days ago on October 7th.

The Free Press:

The Woman in the Hamas Video Is My Daughter

There are 17 young females still being held hostage. One of them is my girl, Naama. And time is running out.

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Dr Ayelet Levy Shachar bears witness, whose daughter Naama is in Hamas Captivity Since October 7th, 2023

The Woman in the Hamas Video Is My Daughter

The Woman in the Hamas Video Is My Daughter

There are 17 young females still being held hostage. One of them is my girl, Naama. And time is running out.

Katie Couric talks with Dr Ayelet Levy Shachar, whose daughter Naama was taken hostage by Hamas almost 3 months ago on October 7th.

[Katie Couric]

Well, I know it's been three months since the attacks on Israel since your 19-year-old daughter Namama was taken, and I cannot even imagine what these three months have been like for you as a mother. Can you describe them for us?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

I'll try. In some sense, it's like it has been the same day. Ever since October 7th, I have woken up to the same day every day. Um, so time is distorted in that sense. Um, and a bit chaotic. I can’t stick to a daily routine or anything.

It was just, um, I think, for the first week or two, I was in a State of Shock. Now that I look back at it, I wasn't very, you know, active with my kids at home, but I didn't think I needed to do anything for Namama to come back.

You know, I was in total um horror but waiting for the country for the Army for something to happen to bring her back. At that point, I didn't think I would need to, you know, fight to sound her voice, to sound my voice to, um, to bring her back.

But this is where I am now, so it's like, you know, asking how my days are, how I have been. I've been in a nightmare, waking up to the same day all over again, thinking, what is the best, most effective way to bring her back? Every day I wake up, I think about what that has entailed.

[Katie Couric]

You're saying you have been fighting for her return. What does that look like? What has that been like?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

I think it's, um, trying to, first of all, get any information that we can. Of course, we don't have any official information from the Red Cross or other humanitarian organizations that should be in the picture. Um, so it's the information, and then it's the talk with the media, uh, in Israel and out of Israel and America. Primarily, to raise awareness and to push for or call for action, these actions create the pressure needed to understand the pressures and the actors in this situation.

Uh, and then we meet with them, our officials in Israel. I had a concise, condensed trip to the US, where I met with

The UN Representatives involved or should be in this humanitarian crisis. And then in the return of the hostages, so yeah, I think these are the efforts. This is the fight.

[Katie Couric]

Do you feel that the Israeli government or even people internationally, officials from all over, are doing enough to secure the release of the hostages?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

That's a hard question because it's, you know, you’re asking how I feel. Sometimes, until Namama is back, I can never think enough is being done, even on my part. I'm always thinking, what else can I do? How can I save her. and most of the time, that's what I'm feeling about, you know, the whole.

Uh, whoever has his hands involved in this. Uh, if it’s in Israel or internationally. But I understand your question. You know it's my feelings. They are one of the mothers whose baby is held hostage in Gaza. And you know what? How can I feel that enough is being done until she returns? When you witness the military action that is going on in Gaza.

[Katie Couric]

I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, and I can’t imagine. But I would be so sick with worry that my loved one was in grave danger because of the military operation.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

I'm worried. Yeah, I'm afraid in so many directions. What can happen to her in her very vulnerable and high-risk situation as a young girl? I, of course, worry when there's bombing going on and a military zone.

I don't really know what to say about that. In the Strategic sense, I'm extremely worried, and I just try to go on a diet [from TV] and not watch that much TV and focus on what I can do.

What I, you know, and the things I need to do at home and my work that I still do a little bit of my work. I'm a doctor and still doing my family practice, so I focus on other things and not feel that  immediate danger all the time.

[Katie Couric]

You have to do that for your own sanity and have three other children. As you said, you're a doctor; I understand you're a doctor for the Israeli women's football team. You would say soccer.

 In our country, have you found some comfort and support from the women's soccer team, the community, and your circle of friends?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Yes, there is so much support and comfort, and yes, there is a big hug that I feel from the community and all the players on the team. And uh, everyone in the Israeli Football Association and everyone around all my uh family, physicians, colleagues. And, of course, family, friends, neighbors, and so many are supporting and asking what they can do to help. Regretfully, I cannot be working with the team right now. I cut most of my work and did a little of the family practice. But yeah, I do feel a lot of support. I  just wish all of this love and support could, you know, could already bring her back.

[Katie Couric]

I know you texted Naama that morning. She was at the Kibbutz near the Gaza border and wrote that I was in the safe room. I haven't heard anything like this in my life. 20 minutes later, you checked in, didn't hear from her, and soon learned that something terrible had happened. And then these horrific images of your daughter, your 19-year-old daughter, being pulled from a Jeep and put into the car, uh, with obvious wounds. Her sweatpants or pajama bottoms had blood on them. She was cut on her arm. Unimaginable. and must have resulted in such a feeling of powerlessness for you. I think unbearable is the word you use, which probably describes it. You haven't looked at that video, but you know it exists. How do you begin to process that?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

By now, I've seen most of the video, I think, because it has been shown in so many places and on the interviews that I have been on, but I didn't see it at first on that first day. My kids saw it, and my older son said Mom, don’t watch this. You shouldn't watch it. I understood what the content was in general. But by now, I've watched most of it. At least you know the frames.

It's been three months, so I tell myself, you know that that is over that part where she's brutally dragged by the hair. The wounds, even I know she's still wounded in the legs. But you know, I'm telling myself that part is over, and now she’s there, she's been seen there, she just has to hang in there, and she’s okay.

So, I'm trying to describe how I feel about it, what I do, and what I try to think to survive. The site of this video. It's just the pain strikes every time again. I try I try not to watch it so much. I just have to keep going and can't let myself. That's why I tell myself that it just happened on that one day, and then she was taken, and she hung in there. She will be okay.

[Katie Couric]

You are surviving by not thinking about it too much and not letting your mind go there.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Yeah, it’s the truth. I was truthful. I am very much aware of those graphics in the video and how it’s very explicit. Do you say it is very real? You know, I had to face it clearly at a certain point when there was this lady in Beverly Hills who was doing an exhibition of her wearing the same clothes as  Naama was, blood Stained and walking handcuffed in the street as a demonstration of what she of that video of Naama. So, I came across that, and then it hit me.

I watched a little bit of Naama’s video again. It was, I think, maybe five weeks after October 7^th. So, you know it comes up again and again. There was another display of, like, um, bloody sweatpants hanging from a building in Times Square. You see, it keeps hitting me again and again in different directions.

[Katie Couric]

It must be very difficult because, in a way, your daughter has become a symbol of the brutality that occurred on October 7th, which must feel surreal and unfathomable to you.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Exactly. And you know, it feels like I almost disconnected from my little girl. She is a smiling, happy, gentle, and friendly girl. Loves little children. Works with children. Um, so many things are not in that frame video. So, in my mind, I'm also disconnecting this and trying to go through this. My sister always tells me this: When you're going through a storm, keep going. Don't stop. Keep going.

So when this storm [comes over] me, the video, the evil thoughts, and that feeling of powerlessness, I just say to myself, you know you're going through this. Keep going. Keep going. Do you know what I can do? Israeli officials and Witnesses say that everywhere Hamas terrorists struck on October 7th, the Rave the military bases along the border of the Kibbutz, they brutalized women.

[Katie Couric]

I almost hate bringing this up because it's so painful. But a New York Times investigation included interviews with more than 150 people Witnesses and Medical Personnel rape counselors. They found that attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence that day. Reading about these accounts is sickening, but what has that been like for you? And if this is too painful to answer, I totally understand.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

You know, I'll try to be focused because what I'm feeling is absolute fear and horror. But what I want to say is that we don't know whether something happened tonight or she was subjected to sexual violence. We do know that she was subjected to the violence that we see in that video. So you know that brutality is very out there.

In the video, of course, it's a violent terror attack, but as for the sexual violence and the use of women as weapons of war. As we've seen in the investigation by the New York Times and from all the testimonies that have already been published, for me, it just says that there are still 13 young girls kidnapped in Gaza. For me, that is so urgent. They need to urgently be out of there because they are the highest-risk group and the most vulnerable to violence of any sort.

I'm thinking about all this: we must act and get them out.

[Katie Couric]

When 100 hostages were released in November in late November primarily women and children, it must have been devastating that your daughter was not among them.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Yeah, I waited. They started to come out. I couldn’t even watch that, you know, I couldn’t watch it. I was happy for them, and I was hopeful. You know, this is starting, and it's moving. They're coming out, but I couldn't watch the filming, and I was just waiting

for my Naama. And I didn't get that official's phone call saying she was next. The agreement was broken, and then they started fighting again, and it continued.

[Katie Couric]

Have you contacted any of the released hostages or their families? Did any of them give you any information? Did they see Naama while they were in captivity? Is there any news at all?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Yeah, we did. We did get over a month ago that they were the last ones. But we did get a sign of Life notice from Naama. A few hostages, the mothers and children, saw her briefly for a few hours when she joined their group. She was alone and then joined them, so they did say she was talking and walking and, um, wounded in her legs but still walking okay. And, uh, she seems very strong.

I remember that evening when we got that call to say that some of the hostages released had seen her.

[Katie Couric]

Did that give you some comfort?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Yes, of course. I almost felt like she was okay now. She's there. I was so comforted. But now it has been over a month since, and we didn't get another because, you know, they started the military attacks again there. So, there's no contact because of that.

[Katie Couric]

Do you think there might be another pause in the fighting that would enable the release of more hostages? Have you gotten any indication that might happen?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

There has to be. There has to be. That's the only way. I don't know if to call it a pause or a ceasefire, but there has to be another one because that's how they're going to get out. They have to come out, and they have to be released. So, in my mind, I'm not a strategic expert, but that's how it will work. Some sort of agreement. So that's what we're waiting for at the moment. We don't have any information about this happening.

We are very hopeful that this is the next step for me. I hope this is the news I wake up to tomorrow morning. Every morning with each passing day.

[Katie Couric]

Do you worry that the hostages are being forgotten? You know I walked by. I live in New York City and walked by a poster today of a 49-year-old woman. One of the posters is all over New York. I stopped and looked at her face. I wondered how many people just walk by these images every day and don’t even look at them. I'm curious if you worry about that.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

I worry all the time about that. I go through social media to see that it's still talking. I know that it's less. I go through the newspapers and TV. I want to see that the talk is still about the hostages and their release. But people are starting to go back to their routine and everyday life. I don't know what to do about that other than to continue and put up new photos and do new activities to raise awareness and to keep the awareness of the situation.

And yeah, we fear that. I think the Israeli Family Forum for the hostages in Israel is very active in that sense. We have rallies every Saturday, and we keep going. And also through media. Because you know it cannot be forgotten. It cannot be put aside, and the world cannot be silent until they are all back.

[Katie Couric]

I know it's late there, and I want to let you get some sleep. But how do you hold on to hope?

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

That is a good question. I have, you know, a few things. I grow it like you grow a plant or something from inside. I have to grow. The hope from inside is all over again every day. Many things come from the outside, like my good friends, partner, and kids. They water it. So, help me hold that hope and that faith. I don't know if I'm making sense and how I'm explaining this, but it's something that you know I need to be actively holding this hope and the faith.

And also, um, I think of my Naama. She was so positive in her thoughts and such an amazing young girl. I think of her and say I must see her again. She has to come back. So, of course, the hope is always there because of her. That's the best I can explain it.

[Katie Couric]

Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar, thank you for spending some time with us and talking and having a very difficult conversation about your daughter, 19 years old, who you haven’t seen for 3 months.

[Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar]

Thank you for your time and for your efforts to put this out there

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The video of the interview:

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This series is also available on The View From Israel Website.