Newly emerged video shot by Hamas terrorists showing the capture of female Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border has been described as “hard to watch” by Israeli media.
In the video, parts of which have not been shared with the public, Hamas terrorists are initially seen with five female IDF spotters, with two more later added.
“We will exchange you for our people,” the terrorists say.
Another terrorist forces one of the soldiers to show him how to dial a Gaza number from her cell phone. The terrorists later put the soldiers into stolen Israel Defense Forces vehicles for transport to Gaza.
Shira Albag, the mother of the kidnapped soldier Liri Albag, 19, watched it several weeks ago.
“I watched the video. They showed it to us three weeks ago. The IDF spokesman called us and showed us a video from the day of the kidnapping, something we had not seen and did not know about.
“We all only imagined what happened to the girls on Oct. 7, and unfortunately this video proved to us that it was even worse than we imagined,” she said.
According to a recent report by the Times, a number of new female IDF recruits have refused to serve as observer soldiers out of fear that “what happened to them could happen to me,” as one young Israeli recruit, Romi Fisher, told the Times.
At least 15 female soldiers were killed at Gaza border army bases on October 7 with roughly six others taken as hostages by Hamas, including Liri, who was reportedly working her third shift as an observer soldier when she was kidnapped.
Referred to as the “eyes of the military,” observer soldiers are assigned sections of the border fence to intently watch from remote slot machine-like stations with control sticks to zoom in on their respective zones.
On October 7, "four of our cameras in the field stopped working, and then all the electricity on the base went down, and then our phones didn’t work,” said Isabela, who was on a base close to Gaza’s northernmost beach when some six Hamas militants came out of their boats and onto Israeli land.
“The girls all went into the command centre and locked the door. We were told not to open under any circumstances.”
According to the Times, parents of the young women recruited to watch the borders since October 7 are fearful that their children are “sitting ducks” at the border stations. One mother of a new recruit told the Times: “I hope the army has learnt. We are sending our children to this job with a heavy heart, not wholeheartedly.”
Albag said the families of the young women taken hostage had demanded that Knesset members watch the video and were surprised to find out that they already had, but had not updated the families on its existence.
Israel estimates that about 100 of the 133 or so hostages still held by Hamas are still alive.
