‘It’s like the holocaust’: gruelling video of executed hostages revealed
Poignant footage of the six hostages executed by Hamas in 2024 has emerged, showing the captives lighting candles for Hanukkah, playing card games and discussing their torture.
Poignant footage has emerged of the six Israeli hostages executed by Hamas last year, filmed during the months before they were murdered.
Hirsch Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Uri Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27, were murdered on August 29 2024 by their captors as the Israeli Defence Forces neared their underground prison, with the IDF reporting that the men had thrown themselves over their female companions in an ultimately futile attempt to protect them from execution.
Videos retrieved by the Israeli military document the captives’ courage and determined faith during their 328 days in captivity. In one gruelling video, hostage Uri Danino tells his fellow captives: “This is like the holocaust, isn’t it?” In another, Alex Lobanov says he’s been chained for so long he can hardly walk.
The hostages were captured from their kibbutz homes and from the Nova music festival on October 7 2023. Each left mothers fathers, children behind and each suffered unbearable pain on the day of the massacre – and during captivity. Alex Lobanov never got to meet his unborn son. Hirsch Goldberg-Polin famously had his arm blown off from the elbow when he tried to protect other festival-goers by throwing a grenade back at the militants. Uri Danino, a soldier, was shot in the back and captured trying to save festival-goers, and Almog Sarusi saw his girlfriend Shahar Gindi killed in front of him at the Nova festival.
In one video, aired on Israeli TV on Friday (AEDT), the hostages light Hanukkah candles and talk about the lack of oxygen in the tunnel that makes it hard to keep the candles alight. They joke about where they can get sufganiyot, doughnuts traditionally eaten on Hanukkah, with one hostage saying they were waiting for a famous Israeli bakery to open.
But there are many dark references to the holocaust. At one point, Hersh Goldberg-Polin likens their situation to that of the Jews living in Nazi Germany.
“There’s that picture of the Hanukkah with a [Nazi flag] above it,” he says.
In another video, Almog Sarusi reminds the others of the movie The Pianist, the film based on the memoir by Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman.
“There’s ‘The Pianist,’ right? From the Holocaust?”, he says to Uri. “So I’m the book.”
Uri Danino replies: “This situation isn’t that far from the Holocaust, is it?”
The videos are part of hours-long footage filmed by Hamas – presumably to be used as propaganda at some point – over a period of 70 days.
Some of the videos are clearly staged, with militants filming themselves putting food on the hostages’ mattresses and giving them Hanukkah candles and a lighter.
Michal Lobanov, Alex’s widow, told Channel 12: “These were completely staged videos that Hamas forced them to take pictures of. But their dynamics, that’s something you can’t stage.”
Other footage documents the hostages’ fear and pain amid lighter moments such as a card game, and a muted celebration of the new year.
The torture the hostages endured is evident, too, in snatched conversations. At one point Alex, whose t-shirt is bloodstained, tells his fellow captives: “I’m used to the chains that I am like this … I still can’t walk with my legs.”
Uri and Almog are also clearly injured – Uri’s shoulder is bandaged and one of the female hostages, Carmen Gat tells a militant: “A long time (to go untreated) like this, it’s not good. He needs treatment.” She goes on to explain that she’s a mental health therapist so isn’t the right person to treat his wounds. Later footage shows a weakened Uri lying down as his friends urge him to drink.
Even the card game is unbearable poignant, with the hostages helping Hirsch as he struggles to hold the cards.
The militants film themselves bringing fresh fruit to the captives – another clip set for propaganda to show how well they treated the hostages. But the little group’s reaction reveals the truth behind the gesture – Eden and Uri both put the fruit aside, saving it for later – knowing they may not get food again for some time.
There are also moments of intense psychological cruelty. In one instance, a militant enters the hostages’ cell with a newspaper article, which presumably quotes members of the hostages families.
Carmel, who was kidnapped from her parents’ home and doesn’t know whether they survived the massacre, begs him to show her the article, telling him: “I want to see my father, if it’s him.” The militant refuses, telling her he will show it another time.
Less cruelly – but obviously for propaganda purposes – on New Year’s Eve 2023 Eden is allowed to film a message to her little sister, who has just celebrated her birthday. In the end, her message comes to Mai from beyond the grave, with Eden saying to the camera: “Congratulations to my little sister, Mai, may you be happy and healthy and we really miss all our families and are really looking forward to returning home, and God willing, soon, this year, so to speak.”
The video was never broadcast, but Mai told Channel 12: “This is the thing I’ve been wishing for all this time.
“I’ve been wishing so much for some kind of note that they’ll find in the tunnel that’s in her handwriting, and then to receive something like that is meaningful.”
Finally, Uri is seen dedicating a blessing to mothers. Heartbreakingly, his mother Einav tells Channel 12: “Seeing my son there singing ‘Ishet Chail’ and dedicating it to all mothers, you understand that he needs a mother.”
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