Israeli hostage workers publish untouched October 7 video as anger grows over Netanyahu interview

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The group representing Israeli hostages and their families has rejected a video depicting the kidnapping of three Israelis by Hamas on October 7, moments after the mob condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recommendation that Israel Can make “partial agreement”. Militant staff separated some, but not all, of the hostages.

Video broadcast Monday evening by the Forum for the Families of Hostages and the Missing shows Hersh Goldberg-Polin, or Levi, and Elia Cohen being pushed in the back of a pickup truck down a tree-lined road in southern Israel. Militants waving attacking guns. “There are dogs, they are here,” some gunmen would also be heard declaring.

Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli citizen aged 23, is seen with his face bloodied and his left arm boneless – which was later blown up by a grenade thrown into the bunker, killing him. got injured. And many others have been hiding from Hamas gunmen.

Hamas pardoned a video of Goldberg-Polin in April that was primary evidence that he had survived. In the video, he criticized Netanyahu’s government, as have other Israeli hostages in Hamas propaganda videos. Having been held in Gaza for six months, he was certainly talking under duress.

The video was debunked a generation later, with Netanyahu saying in his first one-on-one interview with local Israeli media since October 7 that he was seeking a “partial deal” with Hamas to return some of the hostages. Were ready to do. Captured in Gaza – an apparent softening of one of Israel’s war goals, drawing a strong rebuke to the hostages’ discussion board, which has become a powerful political drive in Israel.

Netanyahu’s comments on Israel’s Channel 14 were in contrast to the goals of the broader Israeli ceasefire proposal defined by US President Joe Biden, which sets out conditions for a permanent ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages in exchange for withdrawal. Israeli army.

“This harrowing footage is a sobering testament to the 262 days of abandonment of our loved ones. Harsh, Elia and Orr were captured alive, and they must return alive today. Every day that passes puts the hostages at greater risk and our chances of getting them back safely diminish,” the discussion board said in a comment, calling for a resolution that brings all the hostages home. .

Earlier, the discussion board had said – in an apparent jab at Netanyahu – that “an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip without the release of hostages is an unprecedented national failure and a failure to meet the goals of the war.”

Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot – who resigned a moment before Netanyahu dissolved Israel’s war cabinet – also criticized Netanyahu’s comments, saying, “There are soldiers who are fighting now because they have hostages. “The goals of the war are to return.”

In a short comment released after his interview on Sunday, Netanyahu’s workplace sought to clarify his response, declaring that he had “made it clear that until we get all of our 120 hostages, alive and dead, We will not leave Gaza until it is returned.”

Seeking to further reiterate his explosive comments, Netanyahu told the Knesset on Monday: “We are committed to the Israeli resolution that President Biden welcomes. Our position has not changed.”

The release of the video aims to refocus minds in Israel’s security cabinet, reminding Netanyahu and other senior officials of the war’s early struggle to recapture the hostages, many of whom were nearly nine years old after their capture. Live in Gaza after months.

It came as the number of hostages believed dead rose to 42 with the Israeli military announcing that one of his comrades, 39-year-old Sergeant Major Mahmad al Atrash, had been killed on October 7 and that his body had been recovered. Being organized by Hamas. Earlier, on June 8, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said it believed at least 41 hostages had been killed in the October 7 attack, with their bodies stored in the Gaza Strip.

At least 5 American hostages were believed to be alive and 4 others were believed to be dead.

Goldberg-Polin, Levy and Cohen were abducted from the Nova Music Festival during Hamas’s deadly offensive, when its terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage.

Hersh’s mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, was told by witnesses that more than 29 people had gathered at a secure location outside the festival before Hamas began throwing grenades. Eight people survived by hiding under the bodies of the dead, with Goldberg-Polin being one of several people taken hostage. A first-hand account from a gentle woman in the bunker stated that Goldberg-Polin helped throw out most of the grenades before her left arm was blown off at the elbow.