Agam was held captive by Hamas for 51 days. She's telling her family's story in a new documentary.

It was 6:28am when Agam Goldstein-Almog woke to the sound of sirens and rockets on October 7, 2023.

The 17-year-old quickly ran to her older sister Yam's bedroom, the nominated 'safe room' of their home in the Kfar Aza kibbutz — an Israeli agricultural community near the border of Gaza.

Her parents, Chen and Nadav and brothers, Gal, 11, and Tal, nine, followed her.

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They started receiving Whatsapp messages — terrorists had infiltrated the kibbutz. Their friends were being attacked.

"They're here, they're in our house."

"I've been shot. They're shooting me."

They barely had time to register the messages before a large "boom" reverberated around their home.

Chen and Nadav crouched over their four children with their backs towards the door, in an effort to protect them. Then there was yelling.

Speaking to Sheryl Sandberg in a new documentary Screams Before Silence, Agam recounted her dad's final moments.

"My dad, he made a decision and took the rail guard from my sister's bed and stood at the entrance [of the room] with the rail guard. Then they shot at the door... and that was it. They came in and shot dad right away, I saw him taking his last breaths.

"Just a second before that he'd been sitting here, and I didn't say goodbye to him or hug him or kiss him." 

The rest of the family was ordered out of the bedroom single file.

Agam and her mother Chen speaking at a community event a month after their release. Image: Getty/Amir Levy.

Agam was behind Yam, who passed out and got stuck in the doorway. Agam tried to splash some water on her to wake her up, but she was pulled away by her hair.

As the rest of the family was ushered outside, her sister was shot in the face by a terrorist.

"She was supposed to come with us. They took her out. We were all supposed to be kidnapped together," said Agam.

"It all happened in a matter of seconds. Yam's last message was at 11:40, and by 11:51 there's a video of us in the car already crossing the fence into Gaza."

On October 7th, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel in a coordinated attack that targeted civilian villages, kibbutzim, military camps and the Nova Music Festival.

1200 men, women and children were murdered. Thousands were injured, and over 250 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Many women and girls were subjected to rape before they were killed.

The imagery of the attack was shocking, with footage of women and girls covered in blood and being driven away in trucks and motorbikes shown across the world.

"Mum, they're going to rape me now. We accepted that it was going to happen," Agam told Screams Before Silence.

Agam, her mother and her little brothers were taken to a deserted area. They were forced down a tunnel inside the yard of a private home. At the bottom they walked for about 10 minutes before reaching a room. They were held there for two nights before being moved to an apartment where they spent the next five weeks in captivity.

"One of the guards was always telling me 'beautiful beautiful,'" said Agam, recalling a time he touched her body while they were alone in a room together.

"I was really frightened. I was scared the whole time. There were so many moments when it was almost more than that. Your body's just open to everyone. There's nowhere to run."

Agam estimates at least half of the women she was around were sexually and physically abused. Others in the documentary told Sandberg in graphic terms how they were forced to look on as women were assaulted, mutilated and murdered.

Family visit the memorial set up at the Nova music festival site where revelers were killed and kidnapped on October 7. Image: Amir Levy/Getty.

Speaking about her family's time in captivity to Spiegel International, Chen explained the windows [of the apartment] were closed, "with heavy curtains so that hardly any air or daylight came in".

They were given something to eat twice a day — usually pita with olive oil or a piece of cheese. But over time, it became less and less.

She explained that the guards were different to the people who abducted them.

"The ones who took care of us seemed more human," she said.

On Saturday, November 26, after 51 days in captivity the Goldstein-Almog family were among 17 hostages released during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas.

In May 2024, a total of 128 hostages remain unaccounted for; at least 36 of them are presumed dead.

Since October 7, Israel has retaliated with a large scale invasion of Gaza. In March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they'd killed more than 13,000 Hamas militants during their operation within Gaza Strip. But according to the United Nations, more than 35,000 Palestinian men, women and children have also died, with much of the remaining civilian population now starving.

A cease-fire remains deadlocked, with the UN chief urging for an agreement to be made "immediately".

In a video address over the weekend Antonio Guterres called for, "the unconditional release of all captives held by Hamas as well as an immediate surge in humanitarian aid" into Gaza.

"A ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war," he said. 

Feature image: Screams Before Silence.