A video showing the capture of seven female Israeli soldiers by Hamas on 7 October has been released by the Israeli government at the request of their families.
The graphic footage shows a chaotic scene as the bloodied women are forced to line up against a wall while Hamas fighters shout orders at them.
The fighters take photographs of the women as their hands are bound. One of the fighters shouts at the captured soldiers: “Our brothers died because of you.”
“I have friends in Palestine,” one of the Israeli conscripts, 19-year-old Naama Levy, says in English.
One of the gunmen can be heard shouting back in Arabic: “You are dogs!” he says, according to Reuters.
Later they are pushed into the back of a truck while gunshots ring out around them, and presumably taken to Gaza.
The footage appears to have been filmed during the morning raid by Hamas at the Nahal Oz military base, near the northern Gaza Strip. The 7 October surprise attack killed nearly 1,200 people, including more than 750 civilians, and more than 250 people were taken hostage.
One of the women shown in the video, Ori Megidish, was rescued from Gaza by the Israeli army on 30 October. The body of Noa Marciano, a Corporal in the Israeli army, was recovered from Gaza in November.
The remaining five — named as Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa, and Naama Levy — are thought to still be held captive by Hamas.
The Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the relatives of hostages held by Hamas, said it approved the release of the video to pressure the Israeli government to take action to rescue them. The footage was also released on Israel’s official account on X, formerly Twitter, and was previously released by Hamas in the aftermath of the attack.
“Every new testimony about what happened to the hostages echoes the same tragic truth – we must bring them all back home, now,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a press release Wednesday.
“With each passing day, it becomes more challenging to bring the hostages back home – the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for proper burial. The Israeli government must not waste another moment; it must return to the negotiating table today!” it added.
The kidnapped women were reportedly Israeli army observers, or “spotters,” who monitored the border with Gaza.
In response to the brutal 7 October attack, Israel launched a widespread ground invasion into Gaza that has killed around 35,000 Palestinians — most of them women and children — and destroyed much of the territory.
Source Agencies
