Disturbing video footage of the kidnapping of five female Israeli soldiers during the October 7 Hamas massacre was released on Wednesday.
The young women’s parents agreed to release the video, hoping the gruesome images could help lead to the release of their daughters and other hostages in a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement.
The video shows the wounded young women – some covered in blood – who served as army observers in the Gaza Strip border area alongside heavily armed terrorists. They are clearly terrified and have their arms tied behind their backs.
The kidnappers continue to shout at them and threaten them. The women are first guarded in a room and then taken into a vehicle where they lie together on the ground.
“The video is damning evidence of the nation’s inability to bring home the hostages who have been abandoned for 229 days,” the Hostages Families Forum said in a statement.
“The images show the violent, humiliating and traumatizing treatment the girls suffered on the day of their abduction, their eyes filled with raw fear,” the statement said.
The video, which lasts just over three minutes, is a compilation of bodycam footage taken by the terrorists. The worst scenes, such as images of corpses and the most severe violence, were reportedly not shown.
“On that horrific Saturday, 15 female observers were murdered and seven were abducted alive from the Nahal Oz base,” the statement said. One of them was rescued after 23 days, while another was killed in captivity. Her body was recovered from the Gaza Strip by the army.
“The Israeli government must not waste another moment – it must return to the negotiating table today!” the statement ended.
