This is the first time that 18-year-old Noga Weiss is ready to tell about what the Weiss family went through on that terrible morning of October 7, and about the chilling moments she spent in captivity in Hamas. She tells about the 50 days she was kidnapped in Gaza, about the terrorist who wanted her to marry him and raise his children, and about the exciting meeting with her mother – when she was already sure that she was the only one left alive from her family.
Released from Hamas captivity after 50 days, Nega Weis | Photo: News 12
Only after Noga returned from captivity, alongside her mother Shiri, did she realize what had become of her father Ilan. “On the 86th day, we were told that he was murdered in the kibbutz and his body was kidnapped to Gaza,” she says of her father, who was in the settlement emergency team and went to open the weapons in Kibbutz Bari on the seventh of October, and disappeared. The information about his fate was determined according to a video taken in Gaza as well as other findings collected in the kibbutz.
Now, five months later, Noga is ready to tell about the abduction from the MMD in her home and how Noga and her mother were separated in fear of death. She tells how her older sisters Mittal and Mayan tried to help her when she was alone, surrounded by dozens of Hamas terrorists: “I was under the bed when I saw my mother being kidnapped. My sisters advised me to get out and run, but when I went out there were terrorists all over the area running and on bicycles, so I hid in the bushes.”
“One of them left the room and returned with a gun,” the testimony of Nega Weiss Photo: News 12
After she found a hiding place in one of the bushes near her house in Bari, one of the terrorists noticed Noga, pulled her out of there and sat her on the floor: “There were more than forty terrorists around me, all of them pointing Kalashnikovs at me and at the bodies of people I know,” she described. “Then they put me in the car and we enter Gaza, crowds, children and adults shouting and cheering, putting their hands into the car to pull my hair. I didn’t understand why they didn’t just shoot me.”
Noga is being held captive at the same point in time alongside Moran Stella Yanai, and when a window shatters above them due to the bombing of a nearby building – they are moved to another hiding place: “They constantly move us between places, put hijabs on our heads, and hold our hands as if we were married – to lest they be suspected.”
“He said that everyone will be released and I will marry him and stay in Gaza,” the testimony of Nega Weiss Photo: News 12
During the 50 days that Noga Weiss was in captivity, she recalls that the terrorists sometimes brought cards to play with the abductees: “I said I would do anything, including playing cards with them so they wouldn’t shoot me. But their moods changed all the time, sometimes they played cards with us and laughed, but then If someone said a word out of place – one of them suddenly left the room and returned with a gun.” Noga emphasizes that she and the other abductees were constantly careful, “We didn’t know what would make them angry, the thought that is always in the mind is to please them in order to stay alive.”
The terrorists often used psychological terror on Noga and accused her, “One of them said that he is a teacher at an elementary school and that the Land of Israel is theirs, that it will be theirs again, that we kicked them out of their home and that we are not okay,” she described.
But then one day Venus is transferred to a new house and the attitude towards her changes. They bring her and the other abductees food, “Suddenly an Arab woman with a hijab enters the house,” Noga says excitedly and swallows her mouth, “It takes me a while to realize that the one I see is my mother. I didn’t know she was alive and she didn’t know I was alive, this Not a situation that crossed my mind at all. I was sure that I was left alone.”
“Arabia entered the room. It took me a while to recognize that it was my mother,” the testimony of Nega Weis | Photo: News 12
Noga soon realizes that it was not for nothing that Ima Shiri was brought there. One of the Hamas terrorists brought her because he wanted to get her approval for Noga’s marriage to him: “He said he wanted us to be united so that she would give him the approval, he actually brought a ring, and told me ‘Everyone will be released and you will stay in Gaza – you will marry me and bring me children. He asked my mother if she approved.”
“So we tried to laugh a fake laugh so we wouldn’t get shot in the head,” Noga recalls those dramatic moments, “until my mother got mad at him and yelled at him and said she wasn’t ready,” said her sister. And what happened since the mother’s refusal? Noga says that throughout those days she felt the risk in the air from that terrorist: “He brought a ring only on the 14th day, he stayed with us until the 50th day, and he continued to tell me that I would stay here with him in Gaza, even after everyone was released, And I will raise his children.”
“These are not just fifty days, every day there is the thought that they won’t need me anymore and they will shoot me, it still accompanies me everywhere,” Noga says, holding back her tears, “I am still always looking for a place to hide, we were always afraid that they would open the locked room where We will sleep and they will shoot us.”
Noga confesses the difficulty of mourning her relatives while the abductees are still being held in Gaza: “My mother lost a brother and a nephew, we lost our father, but we are unable to grieve because I think of all the abductees, what they go through, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand how it is possible To survive 200 days – sometimes we were on half a liter of water for two days.”
“We are already half a year into the month of October – now there is no military pressure and no deal, but we continue to bring them humanitarian aid. How long will we wait? Until when? There will be 133 ron Aradim?”, asks Noga, whose unbelievable story raises very difficult thoughts about the situation of The abductees who are now in Gaza.
Noga and her sister still don’t know if they will return to Bari: “I will never feel completely safe here and I probably won’t feel that way anywhere in Israel either. Our mother said she would not come back to live here.” In a short time, Noga is expected to enlist in the army, the one that was not there to protect her and her family on that black Sabbath: “There is anger at the army, but mainly a lack of trust,” she says. The two conclude the interview with a demand for the return of the abductees: “At least we will end this as best as possible and save everyone from there,” they exclaim.
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