‘Each minute an eternity in hell’

A desperate mother who last saw her 19-year-old Israeli daughter being hauled away by Hamas terrorists in a viral video two months ago said each moment her child is held hostage “is an eternity in hell.”

“You have seen the video of my daughter Naama Levy. Everyone has,” Ayelet Levy Sachar wrote in The Free Press on Friday.

“She is seriously injured. She is frightened. And I, her mother, am helpless in these moments of horror,” Sachar said.

Levy, one of 17 young women still held hostage by Hamas, was staying at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Oct. 7, when the group launched its unprecedented surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 captives.

Around 7 a.m. that morning Sachar said she received a haunting final message from her daughter: “We’re in the safe room. I’ve never heard anything like this.”

The teen was filmed by Hamas being dragged out of the back of a jeep at gunpoint, barefoot with her hands bound in bloodied clothes, and shoved back into the vehicle.

The disturbing video of her daughter emerged the following day — but the woman in the clip appeared nearly beyond recognition in her bloodied and battered condition, Sachar wrote. Levy’s father later called and confirmed that it was her daughter.

The teenager has dreams of a future career in diplomacy, and worked as a member of the “Hands of Peace” delegation, which promotes peace between Israeli, Palestinian and US youth, her mother said.

“But now, one video, totally unrepresentative of the life she had led until October 7, is how the world knows her,” she said.

Since her daughter’s been taken hostage, Sachar said “each minute is an eternity in hell,” as she watches news coverage of living conditions of Hamas’ captives, including allegations of rape and violence against women.

“The same monsters who committed those crimes are holding my daughter hostage,” Sachar wrote.

Dozens of hostages and Israeli prisoners were swapped during a short-lived cease-fire at the end of last month, but Levy was not one of them.

The distraught mother pointed out that on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Hamas is refusing to release its female prisoners because “they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”

“Everyone knows exactly what he means,” Sachar wrote.