The households of a number of Israeli feminine troopers taken hostage through the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7 launched video of their abduction in an try and strain the Israeli authorities to revive apparently stalled cease-fire talks that might pave the best way for the captives’ launch.
Members of the family first noticed the footage a number of weeks in the past by way of the Israeli army, which formally handed them a duplicate on Tuesday night time, in keeping with the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, which represents households of hostages held captive in Gaza.
“I’m asking you, please present this clip each day, open your broadcasts with it,” Eli Albag, whose daughter Liri Albag might be seen within the video, mentioned in a tv interview with Israel’s Channel 12. “Till any individual wakes up, the nation wakes up, and realizes that they’ve been deserted there for 229 days.”
Some Israeli politicians instantly seized on the photographs to attempt to rebuff the choice by Eire, Norway, and Spain to unilaterally acknowledge a Palestinian state. Israel Katz, the overseas minister, mentioned he would display screen the footage throughout a “extreme reprimand” of the international locations’ ambassadors.
Within the three-minute edited assortment of movies, which have been verified by The New York Instances, Palestinian fighters, some sporting Hamas headbands, might be seen binding the palms of 5 Israeli ladies who served as lookouts at Nahal Oz, a army base close to the Gaza border. At the least two of the hostages’ faces are bloodied, and they look like sporting pajamas. The militants repeatedly threaten the ladies.
One of many militants calls the ladies “canine,” vowing to crush them. One of many ladies might be heard telling the militants that she had “a good friend in Palestine,” at the same time as one other begs to know if any of them converse English.
In a press release, Hamas mentioned that the scenes offered within the edited video “couldn’t be confirmed.” The group additionally claimed {that a} translation supplied by the Israeli authorities was incorrect and included phrases “that weren’t mentioned by any of the fighters who appeared within the video.”
Talks to safe the discharge of the greater than 125 hostages nonetheless being held in Gaza, some have been at a standstill since Israel started its assault on the southern metropolis of Rafah in early Might. Israeli forces working in northern Gaza retrieved the our bodies of 4 Israelis kidnapped on Oct. 7, heightening fears for the remaining captives.
The Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board recognized the Israeli hostage troopers within the video as Naama Levy, Agam Berger, Liri Albag, Karina Ariev and Daniela Gilboa, all aged 19 or 20. The footage was recorded by physique cameras worn by the Hamas militants who kidnapped them, the group mentioned.
Households of hostages met with senior Israeli leaders on Wednesday, together with Yoav Gallant, the protection minister, and Benny Gantz, a member of the nation’s struggle cupboard, in an try and foyer for a direct settlement with Hamas.
“The video is a damning testomony to the nation’s failure to deliver dwelling the hostages, who’ve been forsaken for 229 days,” the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board mentioned in a press release.
In a press release on social media, Mr. Gantz mentioned he was appalled by the footage of the 5 hostages’ abduction, and vowed to make “tough selections” if obligatory as a way to deliver dwelling the remaining captives in Gaza.
Yair Lapid, the chief of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, mentioned the video was “a reminder to the world of the evil we’re combating in Gaza.”
Dmitriy Khavin, Alexander Cardia and Riley Mellen contributed reporting.
