Hostage families release Hamas video showing 3 sons’ abduction into Gaza under fire
In new footage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy are seen crammed and bloodied on flatbed of pickup truck, being driven toward Strip
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
In the early morning hours of October 7, hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen were shoved, bloodied and terrified, onto the flatbed of a pickup truck, Hamas terrorists towering over them yelling “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) with AK-47s pointed high as the truck barreled down a one-lane road into Gaza.
The images of that ride — from a portion of a Hamas video uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces — were shared publicly for the first time on Monday evening by the families of the three hostages pictured in the video.
The families, together with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said that they were releasing the video as evidence of the government’s abandonment of the hostages.
Many hostage families, along with the Forum, have been calling for a hostage deal in order to bring the living captives home and bury those who were either killed while in captivity or were taken dead into Gaza.
“The harsh video is a serious indictment of the neglect that has been going on for 262 days,” said the Hostages Forum in a statement. “Hersh, Eliya and Or were kidnapped alive and so they have to return, today. Every day that passes endangers the abductees and may torpedo the ability to bring them home.”
The footage is the third section of a Hamas video that shows the chronology of events for the three on the morning of October 7.
One section that was published several months ago showed the terrorists throwing grenades at the field shelter where some 29 people from the Supernova desert rave were attempting to shield themselves.
Goldberg-Polin, Cohen and Levy were all in the same shelter.
The second portion showed Goldberg-Polin being led by terrorists onto the flatbed of the Hamas pickup truck, clutching his tourniquet-bound arm that had just been blown off below the elbow.
This two-minute third portion, released Monday evening, was edited with the terrorists’ faces blurred in accordance with the protocol of the IDF.
The Hostages Forum also released a stitched-together version of the entire video, featuring the sequence of events at the field shelter.
Responding to the release of the new footage, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it “breaks all of our hearts, and once again emphasizes the cruelty of the enemy that we have pledged to eliminate. We will not stop the war until we bring all of our 120 loved ones home.”
In the early morning of October 7, Goldberg-Polin and his friend Aner Shapira ran to the field shelter near the Supernova event, in an attempt to escape the rocket barrage from Gaza that preceded the terrorists’ gun and grenade attack. The terrorists went on to kill 364 people at the festival and kidnap 40, while committing numerous acts of brutality and sexual assault.
The field shelter, which is designed to fit 10 people, was crowded with some 30 Supernova attendees when the Hamas terrorists arrived and threw grenades in.
Shapira caught seven grenades and threw them back at the terrorists, but was killed by the eighth grenade. Goldberg-Polin was taken captive, his left arm blown off from the elbow down.
Eliya Cohen, 26, and his girlfriend, Ziv Abud, along with Abud’s niece and her nephew’s girlfriend, were hiding in the same field shelter as Goldberg-Polin and Shapira.
Abud’s niece and nephew’s girlfriend were killed, and Abud and Cohen were hidden under the dead bodies. The two held hands and whispered, until Abud felt Cohen being pulled away from her, and saw him placed on the pickup truck and driven away.
The family eventually found a photo of Cohen in captivity in Gaza.
Or Levy and his wife, Eynav, reached the same field shelter, attempting to escape the attack after arriving at the Supernova festival only at 6:20 a.m., just minutes before the Hamas onslaught began.
Eynav Levy was killed in the terrorist attack at the shelter, while Or Levy was taken to Gaza as a hostage.
Their toddler son, Almog, will mark his third birthday on Tuesday without either of his parents.
The first time the public received signs of life from Goldberg-Polin was on April 24, when Hamas published a video of him, his left lower arm clearly missing.
Neither Cohen nor Levy have appeared in any Hamas videos of the hostages published over the last eight months.
