The families of five young women still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza released a video on Wednesday evening showing the terrorists’ bodycam footage of the abuse abduction of their daughters.
The five families are all members of the Israeli Hostage Families’ Forum. Their daughters — Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy — were serving at the IDF Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023 when the base was run over by Hamas-led terrorists during their invasion of southern Israel and massacre of some 1,200 people, including IDF soldiers. Another 253 people were abducted and thousands more were wounded in the attack.
“The parents of five young ladies have agreed to show this three minute film. These are girls are still in captivity of Hamas,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters at a briefing earlier in the day.
“Please don’t look away. Watch the film. Do not look away,” Mencer urged the reporters. “Support Israel in bringing our people home.”
“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,” President Isaac Herzog said in a statement Wednesday night.
The president posted the video on the X social media platform.
“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!” he wrote.
“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,” Herzog added.
The video starts off with the women facing a wall with their hands behind their as the terrorists check the handcuffs.
“You dogs, we will step on you,” one of the terrorists says.
The video also showed the terrorists praying. It then cut to one of the terrorists pointing to the women and saying, “Here are the girls who can get pregnant. These are the Zionists.”
The video also cut to another gunman telling one of the hostages, “You are so beautiful.” The woman cringed as the camera turned towards her.
The other two female spotters captured alive from Nahal Oz were Ori Megidish, who was rescued in October, and Noa Marciano, whose body was recovered in November.
The Forum said it released the footage to raise awareness for the 128 hostages still being held, and that it has a more graphic 13-minute version of the video.
“The disturbing video has been the reality of Agam, Daniella, Liri, Naama, Karina, and 123 other hostages for 229 days,” the forum said in a statement. “The video is a damning testament to the nation’s failure to bring home the hostages, who have been forsaken for 229 days.”
War Cabinet member Benny Gantz said his “stomach churned” after seeing the video and vowed to revive negotiations to bring home the hostages.
“But the responsibility of leaders is not just to look the reality in the eye, it is to create a different reality, even when it means making difficult decisions. And that is our responsibility,” Gantz wrote on X.
Israel’s War Cabinet was set to convene Wednesday night to examine ways to revive the hostage talks with Hamas. The terror group has consistently refused to agree to any deal that does not include a permanent ceasefire and removal of Israeli military forces from Gaza.
Below is the video. Viewer discretion is advised.
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… pic.twitter.com/jSV59EiRhp
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) May 22, 2024
TPS contributed to this report.
