By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli television on Wednesday aired previously hidden footage of five pajama-clad army recruits being captured by Hamas gunmen during the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza.
The families of the captives hoped the images would increase pressure on the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach an agreement on a truce with Hamas and secure the release of the hostages.
The government saw the release of the three-minute subtitled video to national and international media outlets as an opportunity to reinforce support.
“These girls are still in Hamas captivity. Please don’t look away,” government spokesman David Mencer told reporters. “Watch the movie. Support Israel to bring our people home.”
The footage shows the young women, all dazed and some bloody, being tied up and placed in a jeep.
“I have friends in Palestine,” says one of the recruits, Naama Levy, 19, in English.
One of the armed men can be heard shouting in Arabic: “You are dogs! We will trample on you dogs!”
Another shooter tells a prisoner, “You’re beautiful.”
The Hostage Family Forum, which represents relatives of the 124 people – most of them civilians – still detained by Hamas, said the images were recovered from body cameras worn by gunmen who attacked the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel, where the Women served as surveillance observers.
The shots of dead Israeli soldiers were deleted and the publication was approved by the families of the five captives, the forum said.
“The Israeli government must not waste another moment; must return to the negotiating table today!”, stated the Forum.
Israel says 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 kidnapped in the Oct. 7 attack led by Hamas. Israel responded by launching an offensive to eliminate the militant Islamist group, in which Gaza health authorities say more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed. The Israeli military claims that 286 Israeli soldiers were also killed.
Netanyahu’s government claims that continued military pressure will force Hamas to concede. Hostage families fear that their loved ones will not survive and that captive women may be raped. Hamas has denied accusations of sexual abuse by its men.
“So please do what you can to bring them home,” Orly Gilboa, whose daughter Daniela is a hostage, told Reuters. “They suffer there every minute, every second. And every minute is important.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the ambassadors of Ireland, Norway and Spain, summoned to protest their governments’ preparations to recognize a Palestinian state, would view the video at a special screening on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Michal Yaakov Itzhaki, editing by Timothy Heritage)
