The families of five female Israeli soldiers who are still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza have released a three-minute video depicting the abduction of the women during the October 7 attack. This footage was retrieved from body cameras and smartphones.
In the heavily-edited video, the women are shown with their hands bound, standing and then sitting by a concrete wall, presumably at the Nahal Oz military base in Israel, which was overrun for several hours on the morning of October 7.
There are also hints of sexual abuse. One of the terrorists says, according to the subtitles, that the Israeli captives are women “who can get pregnant.” Another says to a bloodied, battered female Israeli hostage: “You are so beautiful.”
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, representing the hostages’ families, added a statement on Wednesday:
We thought hard and really tried to find the words to describe how heartbroken, shocked, and enraged we are in light of the new abduction video of the five female observers. There truly are no words to describe what they did or how they did it. The sadistic, diabolical, barbaric… pic.twitter.com/MBEhjOdeiN
— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) May 22, 2024
Talks for a ceasefire that would include the release of hostages have broken down over Hamas’s insistence that any ceasefire include a commitment by Israel to stop the war. Hamas has yet to agree to release all of the hostages in return for any such commitment, and Israel says that allowing Hamas to survive would ensure a repeat of October 7.
Update: Israeli President Isaac Herzog responded in a statement:
Five young women being dragged away by monstrous Hamas terrorists. This video shows the harrowing moments on October 7th that five young female soldiers from a lookout post protecting towns and Kibbutzim in southern Israel, were beaten, threatened with rape, and brutally taken hostage by Hamas terrorists from Gaza. … The video has been released by the brave families and we continue to offer them all our strength and love. … Liri, Karina, Agam, Daniella, and Naama are all still in Hamas captivity and we are fighting to bring them home as well as all other hostages – 128 in total! … The world must look at this cruel atrocity. Those who care about women’s rights must speak out. All those who believe in freedom must speak out, and do everything possible to bring all of the hostages home now.
