The families of five female Israeli soldiers still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza released a three-minute video of the women’s abduction during the October 7 attack, with footage recovered from body cameras and smartphones.
The names of the hostages, according to the Times of Israel, are Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy. Breitbart News will not publish the footage directly, but it can be seen at the following link.
In the heavily-edited video, the women are seen 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.
Several have bloodied faces; one attempts to speak to the terrorists: “I have friends in Palestine.” The gunmen tell them to be quiet. Later, the terrorists perform Islamic prayers by their female captives and shoving them into jeeps.
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, which represents the hostages’ families, added a staetment 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
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 torment that our women endured while treating them like prizes and trophies, just plain objects to do with as they please. All the while praising themselves for their inhumane and monstrous accomplishments. All we know is that no human should have to spend a single moment with them, let alone 229 days. It has never been more clear how urgent it is to bring them home. Now!
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.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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