Israel-Gaza: Woman held hostage after Hamas killed her husband and daughter describes ordeal
The death of Chen Almog-Goldstein’s 20-year-old daughter Yam was just the start of her ordeal.
The final time Chen saw her, Yam was convulsing on the floor of their home after being shot in the face by a Hamas terrorist; minutes earlier, Chen’s husband Nadav had also been killed by a bullet in his chest. They were forced to step over his body as they were led out of the safe room at gunpoint. There was no time to say goodbye.
“He [Nadav] took this wooden plank and he stood there at the entrance to the safe room to protect his family. And then they broke into the safe room,” Chen recalls.
“Maybe he managed to hit them with this wooden plank? I remember that I turned around and there were four or five of them inside the safe room yelling, and they shot Nadav in the chest from very close range in two or three places. He was lying like that with his arms up. He was quiet. I thought that maybe he was pretending.”
Outside she said it was “quiet, kind of idyllic” and they thought Israeli forces would come to their rescue any minute. It didn’t happen.
After first trying, but failing, to start the family’s hybrid car, the Hamas gunmen bundled Chen and her three surviving children into another vehicle and left kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Yam, 20, was killed on 7 October
Hostages for seven weeks
For seven minutes, on the 7 October, they were driven into Gaza. They would remain there for seven weeks, hostages from Israel’s darkest day.
CCTV from the border fence shows the red SUV driving fast along the road and then turning off, onto a dusty field where Nadav used to train for triathlons.
“I remember the looks on the children’s faces. They were looking at me with these very deep looks and they said, ‘Mom, what happened to your lips?’ Because my lips turned completely white. I was shocked,” Chen said.
Chen’s husband, Nadav, who was killed by Hamas
‘Our abductors were overjoyed’
“Near the fence they stopped and they started putting bodies into the trunk of the car and Agam [her son] said to the boys, don’t look back, not to look back. Our abductors were overjoyed, they took a selfie picture, they took pictures of us in the backseat,” she said.
“I remember a Red Cross ambulance, and I was looking and kind of begging with this look that was asking for help. And he looked back at me with this helpless look, and that was it.”
After switching cars they drove to a house behind closed gates and went down a tunnel shaft. For the first time, nine-year-old Tal began to cry.
For most of their time in Gaza, the four of them were watched over by the same six guards. Other than brief glimpses of the sea, they weren’t sure where they were in Gaza.
The family’s safe room after Hamas gunmen burst in
They spoke to their captors and conversed in broken English or Hebrew and there were moments of banter as well as heated arguments, but on the whole they stayed quiet, either as a survival mechanism or because they were ordered to.
“They kept shushing the kids. They couldn’t cry or fight, they had to keep quiet so that the neighbours won’t hear us or if any [Israeli] soldiers were to come close. If we would cry, we had to quickly either snap out of it or not show it,” Chen recalled.
At times they were able to listen to Israeli radio and hear news of the world beyond and war around them. One day, by complete chance, they caught an interview with Chen’s father and brother, speaking about them. “Sorry for the loss of Yam and Nadav,” the interviewer concluded. For Chen, it was the final confirmation of their deaths.
Chen, Agam, Gal and Tal were regularly moved, from apartments above ground to tunnels below.
The hostages were taken in the deadly October 7 attacks. Pic: Reuters
‘I only showered once in seven weeks’
“In the tunnels there’s a lot of sand and the sand gets into your mouth and there’s this smell that’s mouldy. It’s very humid there and sometimes there’s a power outage and the fan has to work because there’s not much air,” Chen said.
“At the beginning there was more food. And they tried to supply food because they wanted us to be okay. They kept saying that, you know, they were taking care of us, that they’re protecting us. We understood that we were important to them.
“The conditions in the apartments were not easy. The windows, they would try to open them a bit, but most of the day the windows were closed with these heavy curtains. So as far as air, ventilation, sunlight. We didn’t have much of any of that.
“There’s hardly any running water in the tap, if there was then it wasn’t fresh water. The smell in the toilet was really, really, bad. There were entire days without electricity. When there was running water, you needed to decide who’s going to shower. The kids showered. Throughout those seven weeks, I only showered, once. I wanted the children to shower.”
Pictures of some of the hostages displayed in Tel Aviv. Pic: Reuters
The fighting was often close by, the sound of airstrikes frightening. There were times that Chen worried her family might be killed by Israeli forces – not their captors.
It was the worst when the sun went down and everything went dark.
“There was fierce fighting going on and the apartments next to us, there was [a] blast and they were damaged. Sometimes in the middle of the night, in darkness, they took us out to the street and we were under tremendous danger from our forces as well.
“It was really scary and dangerous. We were really in danger. When they took us out to the street and we walked down the street and we saw the devastation and destruction, it was really hard.
“You’re in the middle of a war, it’s a battlefield. That’s not that I was thinking, ‘oh, good for us, we showed them’. It was terrible. It was terrible to see the destruction, the devastation, the poverty, the children in the streets.”
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About 100 hostages still remain in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Chen describes seeing weapons everywhere, guns hidden under cushions, grenades and knives.
As the weeks wore on, their guards became increasingly stressed as Israeli forces started closing in.
“We also saw them missing their families. They were worried about their families, their wives. They were hoping for the war to be over. They were hoping for a ceasefire.”
On 26 November, two days into a week-long ceasefire, Chen and her three children were released.
‘It was so humiliating and scary’
“It was like a very long day, a lot of waiting time. We waited in this car for five hours. They said that they were waiting to receive a signal, the phone call from the Red Cross.
“We had to get out of the car and walk and everybody around us, you know, the masses were taking pictures of us. It was so humiliating, humiliating and scary.
“And then when we were passed into the hands of the Red Cross and we started driving away, then the masses clung to the jeep, and somebody even climbed on top of it with this stick next to the driver and kept yelling. And then, like, you know, with the magic wand, all of a sudden the Red Cross jeep stopped.
“And then we were transferred into the hands of the IDF, into armed forces. And it was truly moving and we were both happy and sad because we knew that Nadav and Yam were not waiting for us.”
On Monday, fresh ceasefire talks resumed in Qatar. Hamas has softened its demands but the Israeli government has still described them as “unrealistic” and “delusional”. Chen says a new truce is urgent to get the remaining hostages out, many of whom are badly injured.
“We need to do everything possible in order to release the people who are still there as quickly as possible. We were there towards the end with the young women who were injured physically, some complex wounds, some of them with a severed fingers, with holes in their hands and they did everything they could in order to function and to be okay in a very wrong, distorted reality.
“We need to do everything for them because they’re doing everything they can over there. We need to do everything possible in order to release them, to bring them back to their families, to bring them back to our country.”
US sanctions against Russia’s two largest energy companies, the state-owned Rosneft and privately held Lukoil, are perhaps the most significant economic measures imposed by the West since the invasion of Ukraine.
If fully implemented, they have the potential to significantly choke off the flow of fossil fuel revenue that funds Russia’s war machine, but their power lies not in directly denying Russia access to the tankers, ports and refineries that make the oil trade turn, but the US financial system that greases the wheels.
Ever since the invasion, the Russian government has proved masterful at evading sanctions, aided and abetted by allies of economic convenience and an oil industry with decades of experience.
Ukraine war latest: Zelenskyy expresses relief at Trump move
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New US sanctions on Russia: What do we know?
While the West, principally the EU, has largely turned off the taps and stopped buying Russian oil, China, India and Turkey became the largest consumers, with a shadow fleet of tankers ensuring exports continued to flow.
Data from the Centre for Research into Energy and Clean Air (CREA) shows that while fossil fuel revenues have fallen from more than €1bn a day before the war, they have remained above €600m since the start of 2023, only dipping towards €500m in the last month.
None of that oil has been heading for the US, but these sanctions will directly impact the ability of the Russian companies, and anyone doing business with them, to operate within America’s financial orbit.
According to the order from the US Office for Foreign Asset Control, the sanctions block all assets of the two companies, their subsidiaries and a number of named individuals, as well as preventing US citizens or financial institutions from doing business with them.
It also threatens foreign financial institutions that “facilitate transactions… involving Russia’s military-industrial base” with direct or secondary sanctions.
Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting in Moscow.
Pic: Sputnik/Reuters
In practice, the measures should prevent the two companies from accessing not just dollars, but trading markets, insurance and other services with any financial connection to the US.
Taken in harness with similar steps announced by the UK earlier this month, analysts believe they can have a genuinely chilling effect on the market for Russian oil and gas.
Russia’s customers for oil in China, India and Turkey will also be affected, with the largest companies, state-owned and private, expected to be unwilling to take the risk of engaging directly with sanctioned entities.
Indian companies are already reported to be “recalibrating” their imports following the announcement, which came just a week after Donald Trump announced an additional 25% import tariff on Indian goods as punishment for the country’s reliance on Russian oil.
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That does not mean that Russian oil and gas exports will cease. There are other unsanctioned Russian energy companies that can still trade, and ever since the first barrel of oil was tapped, the industry has proved adept at evading sanctions intended to interrupt its flow from one country or another.
Any significant increase in the oil price beyond the 5% seen in the aftermath of the announcement could also put pressure on the White House, which is at least as sensitive to fuel prices at home as it is to foreign wars.
But analysts Kpler expect the sanctions to cause “an immediate, short-term hiatus in Russian crude exports, as it will take time for sellers to reorganise and rebuild their trading systems to circumvent restrictions and ease buyers’ concerns”.
And Russian gas will, for now, continue to flow into Europe, where distaste for Vladimir Putin‘s imperial ambitions has not killed the appetite for his fuel. While the EU has this week imposed sanctions on liquified natural gas (LNG), they will not be fully enforced until 2027.
World
Dublin protests: Prams filled with fireworks as teens – and children as young as seven – clash with police
At least 23 people have been arrested during a second night of violent disorder near an asylum hotel in Dublin.
Two police officers were taken to hospital with injuries sustained during clashes with protesters – including one who was struck on the head by a bottle.
A Sky News crew was caught in the confusion as police charged at crowds, who were throwing fireworks, stones and other debris.
Pic: PA
It is the third night of demonstrations at the Citywest Hotel following an alleged sexual assault in the early hours of Monday morning.
A demonstration in the wake of the incident, which allegedly involved a 10-year-old girl, turned violent on Tuesday night. A police officer was injured and six arrests were made.
A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named due to rules that apply to all sexual assault cases in the Republic of Ireland, appeared in court on Tuesday charged over the alleged attack.
Gardai officers block protesters near the Citywest Hotel in Dublin. Pic: PA
Police had earlier pledged a “robust response” if the violence continued.
Between 7pm and 8pm, hundreds of protesters faced off with around 40 uniformed officers.
The uniformed officers were replaced with the Public Order Unit, who were carrying plastic shields and additional body protection.
A police van was set on fire on Tuesday night.
Protesters detained after stand-off
Hundreds of protesters had been facing off against the public order unit of the Irish police force along Citywest Drive.
While large parts of the crowd dispersed throughout the night, an additional public order unit was deployed to tackle those remaining at the protest shortly after 10pm.
A number of protesters have been detained after fireworks and rocks were thrown at police. Pic: PA
Several of those caught between the two units were tackled and detained as they tried to flee.
Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said “many have been arrested” and “more will follow” – and went on to praise officers who had responded professionally to “thuggish violence” in the area.
Mr O’Callaghan vowed that those arrested would be “charged, named and dealt with relentlessly” by the criminal justice system.
World
Donald Trump imposes sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies as frustration grows with Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war
Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies – and spoke of his frustration with Vladimir Putin.
In a major policy shift, new restrictions have been unveiled against Rosneft and Lukoil – as well as dozens of subsidiaries – due to “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. We encourage our allies to join us in, and adhere to, these sanctions.”
The move marked a significant change for the Trump administration, which has veered between pressuring Moscow and taking a more conciliatory approach aimed at securing peace in Ukraine.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Trump frustrated with Putin
The US president has resisted pressure to impose energy sanctions on Russia, hoping that Putin would agree to end the fighting. But with no end in sight, he said he felt it was time.
Mr Trump explained he has a “very good relationship” with his Russian counterpart, but felt he had to cancel their planned meeting as “it didn’t feel right to me”.
In a sign of growing frustration, he told reporters: “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it. But we’ll do it in the future.
“I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”
He also hinted that the sanctions could be lifted if the Russian president was prepared to cooperate in peace talks.
“We hope that they [the sanctions] won’t be on for long,” he said in the Oval Office. “We hope that the war will be settled.”
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Putin-Trump talks: The view from Moscow
Trump wants Xi to help with Ukraine
Ahead of a meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Mr Trump said he would like Beijing to help put pressure on Moscow to halt the fighting.
“I think he [Xi] can have a big influence on Putin. I think he can have a big influence … he’s a respected man. He’s a very strong leader of a very big country. And we will certainly be talking about Russia-Ukraine,” he said.
Xi and Putin have formed a strategic alliance between their countries.
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Why Tomahawks are off the table
Ukraine denied Tomahawk missiles
However, Mr Trump warned he is not prepared to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested.
He explained it would take the Ukrainians up to a year to learn how to use the “highly complex” weapons.
“The only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot … is if we shot it. And we’re not going to do that.
“It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it, and we’re not going to be teaching other people.”
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