October 7 · Personal story
Naama Levy
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Nahal Oz military base
Current outcome
Released alive · January 25, 2025
Released alive with Daniella Gilboa, Liri Albag, and Karina Ariev after 477 days in captivity.
01
Before captivity
Before joining the army, Levy took part in the Hands of Peace youth program, which brought Israeli and Palestinian participants together, and trained in triathlon, The Times of Israel reported. She completed the IDF observer course shortly before being assigned to Nahal Oz. A local mynet profile also describes her as 19 and from Ra’anana.
02
October 7
Levy had arrived at Nahal Oz only days earlier, after completing her observer course. The Times of Israel reports that at 6:55 a.m. on October 7 she texted her mother that she and others were in a protected room and that she had never heard rockets and gunfire like that. Her family later learned she had been abducted from a video circulated online. A Russian-language Vesty-Ynet profile also reports that she was taken from the base.
03
Captivity
In testimony published May 24, 2025, Levy described the first weeks of captivity at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. She said she was alone and sometimes went whole days without food, with little water. She recalled that captors once left a pot outside a house; rain filled it, and she drank the collected water. In an interview with Walla, her father said Levy wrote in a notebook during the first 50 days, recording thoughts and messages to her family; she could not bring that notebook when she was moved. He said she later told him that seeing or hearing her family’s campaign gave her hope.
04
Return
Levy was released alive on January 25, 2025, with Daniella Gilboa, Liri Albag and Karina Ariev, after 477 days in captivity. The Times of Israel reported their handover to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces. Ynet documented their reunion with their parents at the reception point in Re’im. The release was part of a negotiated ceasefire and hostage-release arrangement.
05
After returning
In a Walla interview published on February 13, 2025, Yoni Levy said that after returning, Naama asked him what had happened to the people in the protected room at Nahal Oz: who had escaped and who had not. He said he could not answer; the family still lacked a clear account of the attack. He also described how, during captivity, she had written down a message he gave in a broadcast and returned to it for encouragement. On January 26, her father spoke from Beilinson Hospital, thanking those who had supported the family and calling for the remaining hostages to come home. On May 24, Levy herself spoke at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv about her first weeks in captivity and the rainwater that had helped her survive.