Tel Aviv, May 23 (IANS/DPA) Disturbing video footage of the kidnapping of five female Israeli soldiers during the Hamas massacre on October 7 was released.
The parents of the young women agreed to the release of the video on Wednesday in the hope that the horrific images could contribute to the release of their daughters and other hostages in a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement.
In the video, the injured young women -- some of them covered in blood -- who were on duty as army observers in the border area with the Gaza Strip, can be seen with heavily armed terrorists. They are terrified and have their arms tied behind their backs.
The kidnappers keep shouting at them and threatening them. The women are first guarded in a room and then taken into a vehicle where they lie crowded together on the floor.
"The video is a damning testament to the nation's failure to bring home the hostages, who have been forsaken for 229 days," The Hostages Families Forum said in a statement.
"The footage reveals the violent, humiliating, and traumatising treatment the girls endured on the day of their abduction, their eyes filled with raw terror," the statement said.
The video, which is just over three minutes long, is a compilation of bodycam footage taken by the terrorists. The worst scenes, such as footage of corpses and the most severe violence, were reportedly not shown.
"On that horrific Saturday, 15 female observers were murdered, and seven were abducted alive from the Nahal Oz base," the statement said. One of them was rescued after 23 days, while another was murdered in captivity. Her body was recovered by the army from the Gaza Strip.
"The Israeli government must not waste even one more moment -- it must return to the negotiating table today!" the statement added.
--IANS/DPA
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