Families of female Israeli hostages release graphic abduction footage to pile pressure on Netanyahu | CNN

CNN
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Families of seven female Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas during the October 7 attacks have released graphic footage of their abduction as they pile pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure their release.

The video shows the women — all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel — lined up against a wall, their hands bound. The faces of some of the women are bruised and bloodied.

The footage was previously released by Hamas, according to the Hostages Families Forum. The campaigning group obtained it from the IDF, which had previously edited the video to exclude the most disturbing scenes.

“Every new testimony about what happened to the hostages echoes the same tragic truth – we must bring them all back home, now,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a press release Wednesday.

The women were kidnapped during a Hamas raid on Israel’s Nahal Oz military base, near the northern Gaza Strip, as part of the militant group’s attacks on Israel that left around 1,200 people dead and saw more than 250 captured and taken hostage in the enclave.

Following the attack, Israel launched a war in Gaza that has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians over the past seven months, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The kidnapped women were working as IDF observers, a role that involves monitoring Israel’s border security.

Video of the ordeal has been made public as pressure mounts on Netanyahu to secure the release of the Israelis still held by Hamas, which his government has made a key goal of the Gaza offensive. Numerous attempts to strike a hostage-for-ceasefire deal with Hamas have faltered in recent months, infuriating those in Israel campaigning for the return of the captives.

“The State of Israel cannot accept a reality where its citizens constantly feel their lives are threatened and suffer from unrelenting fear and anxiety,” the Hostages Families Forum said as it publicized the video on Wednesday.

“With each passing day, it becomes more challenging to bring the hostages back home – the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for proper burial. The Israeli government must not waste another moment; it must return to the negotiating table today!”

One of the women shown in the video, Ori Megidish, was rescued by the IDF in a special operation 23 days after being taken.

Another, Noa Marciano, an IDF Corporal, was killed while in Gaza and her body was returned to Israel in November.

But five of the seven — Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa, and Naama Levy — remain in captivity, more than seven months after being taken across the border.

More than 100 hostages were freed during a release deal in November, but the IDF believes there are still around 130 people being held in Gaza.

Efforts to reach a deal that would pause the war in Gaza and allow the release of hostages have repeatedly been dashed. Earlier this month, Hamas said Israel’s rejection of a ceasefire plan submitted by mediators at negotiations in Cairo had sent hostage release talks back to “square one.”

The statement came a day after the latest round of Gaza truce and hostage deal talks ended in Cairo, without a deal.