JERUSALEM (AP) — A group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza has released new video footage showing Hamas’ capture of five female Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border on Oct. 7.
The video shows several young soldiers bloodied and injured. In one scene, an activist tells one of the terrified women that she is beautiful.
The images were taken by Hamas militants who stormed the Nahal Oz military base, part of a broader attack by the militant group on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 others hostage.
Seven female soldiers who worked as security guards on the border with Gaza were captured in Nahal Oz, said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which published the images. All were 19 or 20 years old.
The army rescued one of the women early in the war in a ground operation and said a second was killed while held captive by Hamas. The five women featured in the video are believed to still be held by Hamas.
The Israeli military recently declassified the video and released it to the women’s families. The forum said the families had made the images public in an effort to pressure the government into reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would release their loved ones.
“Each new testimony about what happened to the hostages echoes the same tragic truth: we must bring them all home, now,” the forum said in a statement. “The Israeli government must not waste another moment. »
Israel released similar photos and videos of the October 7 massacre as part of a campaign to boost support for the ongoing war in Gaza.
The footage posted Wednesday is about three minutes long and has been edited, with some images blurred to censor what the forum called particularly sensitive material.
It shows a group of more than a dozen armed militants tying up the soldiers, two of whom had visible bloodstains on their faces.
In the video, the women attempt to converse with the activists. One of them said in English: “I have friends in Palestine.”
An activist responds to them in English to ask them to be quiet. In other scenes, activists kneel to pray in front of at least four female soldiers, handcuffed and sitting on the ground. One of them has visible cuts on her legs and her blood pools on the ground while an activist ties her hands behind her back.
At least one of the soldiers appears to be in pajamas, with blood visible on his face. One of the activists points at her and says in English: “You are beautiful.”
In a statement, Hamas called the video a “manipulated excerpt” whose authenticity “cannot be verified.” The activist group said minor injuries and blood on the soldiers “were expected in such operations” but denied physically assaulting the women.
The Israeli offensive on Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas attack, has killed around 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Ashley Waxman Bakshi, a cousin of Agam Berger, one of the women in the video, said she cried the first time she saw it.
“Toward the end, I felt like I was going to throw up. I think anyone who watches this video will understand this feeling, especially as a woman,” she said.
Other footage shows the militants dragging two of the female soldiers towards a jeep as gunshots ring out. One of them is led barefoot to the vehicle, hopping on one foot due to an apparent leg injury.
In another scene, a group of militants hold a hostage by the hands and feet. It is not known whether the hostage is alive or dead. Another scene shows three female soldiers in the back of a moving vehicle, their faces bloodied as activists shout around them. Berger, who wears a brown shirt, is one of them.
“We know she’s alive. We can feel it. She has a twin sister, she feels it,” Bakshi said of her cousin. “She was taken hostage and was not seriously injured. You can see it in the video.”
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