Current:Home > FinanceNewly released video shows 3 hostages, including Israeli-American, being taken captive on Oct. 7-LoTradeCoin
Newly released video shows 3 hostages, including Israeli-American, being taken captive on Oct. 7
View Date:2025-01-14 03:49:57
The families of three men taken hostage by Hamas, including a well-known Israeli-American, have authorized the release of a video documenting the kidnapping near the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7.
Bring Them Home Now, a group that represents the hostages' families, shared the video on social media Monday after the Israeli army declassified it.
In the video, which is graphic and hard to watch, Palestinian militants are seen carting three hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, in the back of a white pickup truck that speeds through southern Israel back toward Gaza. Goldberg-Polin sits bloodied, his forearm a mangled stump. Hamas has since released a video of him in captivity with part of his left arm amputated.
Goldberg-Polin and the two other hostages in the video — Eliya Cohen, 26, and Or Levy, 33 — were at the Tribe of Nova music festival when Hamas launched its attack. All three men are still believed to be held by Hamas.
In a statement posted alongside the footage, Bring Them Home Now called for an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would allow hostages who are still alive to return home and allow those killed to have a proper burial. The statement echoed pleas from families of the hostages for the Israeli government to reach a cease-fire deal with the Palestinian group, as negotiations for a pause in Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and the terms of the hostages' release continue to stall.
Most of the footage was taken by militants who stormed out of Gaza in an attack that killed roughly 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. The video begins with apparent security camera footage showing Palestinian militants, some in green army fatigues, approaching a shelter.
One militant shoots four times into the shelter's door as smoke wafts out. The video cuts to a clip filmed by a militant of Goldberg-Polin and another hostage being pushed into the bed of a truck. Some images are blurred to censor what the hostage families group said is especially sensitive material.
In the video, the militant holding the camera celebrates the capture and thanks and praises God. "Here are the dogs," he says, scanning to show the hostages.
Another militant pulls Goldberg-Polin's hair, and the person holding the camera says, "I want to take a selfie with you."
Goldberg-Polin is seen with a tourniquet tied around his arm. Witnesses have said he was wounded when attackers tossed grenades into the shelter where people had taken refuge. His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, told The Associated Press on Monday that, "262 days in, a lot of people are thinking about these hostages as just this clump of people, not individuals. And we personally feel this is our son."
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Hersh's mother, has been a vocal advocate for resolving the hostage situation since her son was taken on Oct. 7. She spoke to CBS News in April after Hersh appeared for the first time in a video released by Hamas, saying at the time that she had not heard his voice in six months.
"He's clearly medically compromised and medically fragile," she said.
In the video released Monday, Levy is seen lying in the back of the truck with Goldberg-Polin and Cohen. Levy attended the Nova festival with his wife Einav, who was killed by militants, according to the hostage families group. Levy's older brother, Michael Levy, said watching the new video was "horrific."
"On the most horrific day of his life, I wasn't able to do anything," Levy said. "I've never seen him so terrified in my life."
Cohen went to the festival with his girlfriend, who survived the attack under bodies in the shelter. In the video, a militant kneels on Cohen's bloody face, pressing it into the truck bed.
- In:
- Hostage Situation
- Hamas
- Israel
- Gaza Strip
veryGood! (4559)
Related
- Wildfires burn on both coasts. Is climate change to blame?
- Israeli-French hostage recounts harrowing experience in captivity
- Taiwan’s presidential candidates emphasize peace in relations with Beijing
- Albania’s ex-Prime Minister Berisha put under house arrest while investigated for corruption
- Colts' Kenny Moore II ridicules team's effort in loss to Bills
- NYE 2023 is on a unique date that occurs once every 100 years: Here's what 12/31/23 means.
- Judge blocks most of an Iowa law banning some school library books and discussion of LGBTQ+ issues
- U.S. population grew to more than 335 million in 2023. Here's the prediction for 2024.
- South Carolina to take a break from executions for the holidays
- With hateful anti-trans Ohio bill struck down by Gov. Mike DeWine, hope won. For once.
Ranking
- Shocked South Carolina woman walks into bathroom only to find python behind toilet
- Double Down on the Cast of Las Vegas Then and Now
- The Color Purple premieres with sold-out showings in Harlem
- Browns vs. Jets Thursday Night Football highlights: Cleveland clinches AFC playoff berth
- Does your dog have arthritis? A lot of them do. But treatment can be tricky
- Cher asks Los Angeles court to give her control over adult son's finances
- Mexican president inaugurates centralized ‘super pharmacy’ to supply medicines to all of Mexico
- Missouri closes strong to defeat shorthanded Ohio State in Cotton Bowl
Recommendation
-
Angels sign Travis d'Arnaud: Former All-Star catcher gets multiyear contract in LA
-
Retailers shuttered 4,600 stores this year. Here are the stores that disappeared.
-
A Hong Kong pro-independence activist seeks asylum in the UK after serving time over security law
-
5.9 magnitude earthquake shakes Indonesia’s Aceh province. No casualties reported
-
Massachusetts lawmakers to consider a soccer stadium for the New England Revolution
-
Bacon bits: Wendy's confirms one cent Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger offer has limit
-
AP PHOTOS: In Romania, hundreds dance in bear skins for festive ‘dancing bear festival’
-
Live updates | Tens of thousands of Palestinians stream into Rafah as Israel expands its offensive