Even weeks after returning to Israel following 477 days in captivity, there remains a striking gap between the relative openness of the female soldiers about their time in the Gaza Strip and their reluctance to discuss the events of October 7 itself, Ynet reported. They recounted in detail to their parents the conditions of their captivity, the constant danger to their lives, the treatment by their captors, the hunger, and the poor hygiene, but regarding what happened in the fortified shelter at the Nachal Oz outpost that day—during the hours they waited in vain for help, were beaten by the terrorists, and saw their friends killed—they remain mum. Ynet spoke to the parents of three of the five female surveillance soldiers who were released: Albert Ariev, the father of Karina Ariev, Shira Albag, the mother of Liri Albag, and Yoni Levy, the father of Naama Levy. All three agree with the above sentiments: the wound from October 7 has not even begun to scab over, let alone recover. “She simply doesn’t talk about it,” says Albert Ariev, the father of Karina Ariev. “What happened in the fortified shelter was very difficult. It’s weighing on her during the rehabilitation period; I can see that in her. Something terrible happened to my daughter on October 7. It’s clear that the period of captivity wasn’t easy, but the nightmare is split in two.” Why is the fortified shelter taboo compared to more than a year in captivity?   “She says she saw and experienced terrible things there. She was severely injured and according to her, on that day she wanted to die. She simply wished for the outpost to be bombed from the air or something like that so that this suffering would stop. She suffered abuse there and was beaten endlessly. That’s it; she doesn’t go into more detail. She says, ‘I just went through hell that day and could have died.’ She says it was the worst day of the entire period.” Shira Albag: “October 7 is a trauma no less severe than captivity, and we haven’t even touched on it at all. They saw their friends being murdered and then sat there [tied up] in place for four hours. Liri told me, ‘Mom, we will need to process this later.’ She hasn’t yet spoken about what happened there. On October 7, they thought it was only happening at their base. They didn’t understand the situation at all. Only after four days, when they met with other hostages, did they manage to grasp a little of what was happening in the country and that the story was much more complex. It took time for them to understand that it involved such a large number of hostages.” “During captivity, Liri listened to the radio and watched television, mainly Al Jazeera. When she and her friends managed to understand Arabic, they also understood the situation. They realized there was a war. They also knew about the first deal because hostages who were with them were released. The captors made sure not to share anything relevant with them, only the bad things happening in Israel, like the lack of agreements and that they didn’t want to bring them back. They subjected them to psychological terror. They told them, ‘We will marry you off and Islamicize […]