Hamas taunts murdered hostages’ families
Daily News Article — Posted on September 9, 2024
(by Olivia Land, NY Post) – Hamas last Monday taunted relatives of the six hostages found murdered in Gaza by releasing haunting pre-recorded footage of the victims – and warning the gut-wrenching clips were only a teaser to their “last messages.”
One of the gaunt and exhausted-looking hostages, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, said in the eerie propaganda video that she feared she’d never escape alive.
“Bombing here never stops, and we are afraid for our lives. We are scared of dying here,’’ Yerushalmi said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
She and the other five hostages – American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27 – were found dead in a tunnel in Rafah on Saturday, August 31.
They are believed to have been murdered two to three days before their bodies were discovered. …
The Palestinian terrorists also cruelly suggested in a separate posting Monday that the innocent captives were deliberately executed because they were about to be rescued by Israeli forces.
… Yerushalmi — who was working at the Nova musical fest as a bartender when she was abducted during the Oct. 7 massacre — told her family, “I love and miss you all so much,’’ according to the Times of Israel.
Her mother said in a statement Monday, “This is not how I imagined your end.’’ The heartbroken family added, “Our Eden, we love you too and we miss you like crazy. You are forever in our hearts.’’
In the footage, each of the captives appeared and said their names before the footage transitioned to still frames – including one threatening to release the captives’ full statements, according to the video posted on Telegram.
“Hours & We will release their last statements,” the terrorists’ video text said in Hebrew, English and Arabic. “Exchange deal… freedom & life, military pressure… death and failure.”
Hamas previously released similar videos of other Oct. 7 hostages – footage that the Israeli government has denounced as a form of psychological warfare.
Past Hamas videos included a brief message from Goldberg-Polin. It was released in April.
In the video, Goldberg-Polin identified himself as Israeli and said he had been held captive for “nearly 200 days,” which suggested that the video was taken shortly before it was released.
The dual American-Israeli citizen was missing part of his left arm, which was blown off by a Hamas grenade when the Palestinian terror group descended on the Nova music festival in southern Negev during the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
Goldberg-Polin saw his friend Aner Shapira murdered by the attackers before he and a handful of other injured survivors were carted off to the Gaza Strip in the back of a pickup truck, horrifying footage of the abduction showed.
His body and those of the five other slain hostages found Saturday were released to their families over the weekend.
Relatives of Goldberg-Polin were joined by thousands of mourners at his funeral service in Jerusalem on Monday. …
Published at nypost .com on September 2, 2024. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.
About the murdered victims from the Times of Israel, Sept. 1, 2024:
The bodies of six hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 were recovered overnight from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah, shortly after they were murdered by terrorists, the Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday, Sept. 1.
Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi, Lobanov, Sarusi and Danino (an off-duty noncommissioned officer) were abducted from the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im. Gat was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin
The night before 23-year-old Israeli-US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova desert rave, he ate dinner with his family and then left at 11 p.m. to go camping.
His mother, Rachel Goldberg, last heard from Hersh early in the morning on October 7, when her son sent two WhatsApp messages, one telling his parents he loved them, the other saying, “I’m sorry.”
After speaking to several of Hersh’s close friends, they were able to figure out that Hersh and his best friend, Aner Shapira, went to the rave.
The two were last seen at a crowded field shelter, filled with people who tried to escape from the Hamas attack on the party on the morning of October 7.
Goldberg-Polin’s arm was blown off from the elbow as Hamas terrorists lobbed grenades into the shelter. Shapira threw at least half a dozen grenades back out of the shelter before he was killed.
Goldberg-Polin was seen alive in a video released by terrorists in April.
His parents had campaigned prominently for his release, frequently meeting with US President Joe Biden and other officials.
In a brief statement, Goldberg-Polin’s family said that they had “broken hearts.”
Carmel Gat
Carmel Gat, 40, an occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, was visiting her parents in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked, killing her mother, Kinneret. Gat was taken captive, as was her brother Alon, sister-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat, and niece Geffen, who were also visiting.
Alon and his three-year-old daughter, Geffen, were able to escape their captors on October 7 and remained free. His wife Yarden, 36, also initially escaped but was recaptured. She was held hostage in Gaza and released on November 29 during a temporary ceasefire.
With the release of dozens of hostages, the family received word that Carmel was alive and had been kept captive with some children and did yoga once a day with them.
Alex Lobanov
Alex Lobanov, 32, was the head barman at the Nova party.
At the time of the attack, his wife Michal was five months pregnant. She has since given birth. The couple also has a two-year-old.
The young family lives in Ashkelon, where Alex cared for his parents, who both have physical disabilities.
“He’s the guy who worries about everyone else,” wrote a friend.
Eden Yerushalmi
Eden Yerushalmi, 24, a bartender from Tel Aviv, had gone to the Nova party with a group of friends.
When the terrorists attacked the rave, she called her older sister, Shani, who stayed on the phone with her for hours, along with their younger sister, May.
They were on the line with Yerushalmi when she hid in a car with friends who had been murdered, pretending to be dead. They stayed on the line when she went to hide in thorny bushes. They reminded her to breathe.
For four hours, the three sisters were on the phone together, until they heard gunshots and Yerushalmi cried, “Shani, they caught me!” After that, the phone went dead.
Ori Danino
Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25, an off-duty noncommissioned officer who attended the Nova rave, initially escaped the attack but went back to try and save others.
Danino and a friend left the party in separate vehicles, filling the cars with as many people as possible to help them escape the Hamas killing spree.
At one point, Danino asked his friend for the phone number of people they had just met at the party, telling him that he was going to go back to rescue them — siblings Itay Regev and Maya Regev, and Omer Shem-Tov.
That was the last time Danino’s friend heard from him.
Danino is from an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem. He was engaged to be married to Liel.
His brother said on Sunday: “I’m sorry I couldn’t do everything.”
Danino served as a signals officer in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion.
Almog Sarusi
Almog Sarusi, 27, was at the Nova party with his girlfriend, Shahar Gindi, a psychology student at Ariel University. Shahar’s body was later found.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Sarusi had stayed to try and help Shahar after she was injured, at which point he was kidnapped.
He loved to travel round the country with his guitar. “A guy full of life and light,” the outlet said.
Background
What happened on October 7?
On October 7, 2023, thousands of armed Hamas terrorists tore down large parts of the Gaza security fence using tractors, RPGs and explosives and invaded southern Israel. Simultaneously, Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired thousands of rockets toward Israel.
Some 1,500 terrorists successfully broke through the fence in vehicles and by foot. Some used motorized paragliders to fly over the fence, and others attempted to invade through the sea, aiming for Israel’s Zikim Beach.
The terrorists split up and made their way to a number of Israeli towns and IDF bases surrounding Gaza. That is when the massacre began. They invaded the towns, shooting everything in sight. They broke into civilian homes, shooting, burning, raping and beheading. Over 1,300 civilians were murdered, and over 200 were abducted. Hamas terrorists briefly took control of about 10 Israeli towns, terrorizing and brutalizing their residents.
Simultaneously, additional terrorists drove on to the Nova Music Festival, which took place in a nearby open area. Partygoers were waking up to the sound of sirens and attempting to evacuate due to the threat of rockets. Many of them did not reach safety. The terrorists fired indiscriminately at the thousands of civilians who came from all over the world to celebrate peace through music.
They massacred hundreds, raped young women, brutalized bodies, and abducted many. 260 bodies were later found in the area of the festival, most of them belonging to young men and women—innocent youth.
IDF forces operated to neutralize the terrorists and thwart their infiltration; however, the terrorists were also ambushing IDF bases, killing soldiers and hurling grenades and explosives. Still, field observers used a sniper sighting system, tanks fired shells, and combat helicopters and special forces were deployed to the scene.
The State of Israel has never encountered such a large-scale, calculated attack on the Gaza front.
Many were lost not only during the initial attacks but also during the prolonged, bloody battles to regain control of the towns and bases surrounding Gaza, clear them from terrorists and rescue as many hostages held in Israeli territory as possible. When forces were able to regain control of the towns, they were faced with grotesque sights of Hamas’ pure violence that were left behind.
Cribs and baby carriers were found bloodstained. Families were found embracing each other, lifeless. Pets were left behind, among them a dog refusing to leave a child’s bed, waiting for its owners who will never return.
October 7th will forever be remembered as a dark day in Israel’s history and in humanity’s history. A reminder that there are humans capable of utterly inhumane things. (from idf.il/eng)
On October 7, 2023, as part of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip, including children, women, and elderly people. In addition to hostages with only Israeli citizenship, almost half of the hostages are foreign nationals or have multiple citizenships. Some hostages were Negev Bedouins. The precise ratio of soldiers and civilians among the captives is unknown. The captives are likely being held in different locations in the Gaza Strip. (from wikipedia)