Hamas releases video of Israeli hostage who IDF says was murdered
Eden Yerushalmi's family described it as a "shocking psychological terror video" but gave permission for an extract to be used in which she says she misses her relatives.
Tuesday 3 September 2024 22:09, UK
Hamas has released a video of one of the six hostages that the Israeli military says was"brutally murdered".
Eden Yerushalmi, 24, was working as a bartender at the Nova music festival on 7 October when she was abducted by the militant group.
Almost a year later, she and five other hostages were "murdered" a short time before Israeli forces found them in an underground tunnel on Saturday night, according to the Israeli military.
The two-minute clip released by Hamas includes Ms Yerushalmi saying she missed her family.
It is not clear when the footage was taken or the circumstances of how it was filmed. The video was released on Hamas's social media channels late on Monday night.
Her family called the footage a "shocking psychological terror video".
They gave permission for a 12-second extract of the video to be used, and said: "Our Eden, we love you too and we miss you like crazy. You are forever in our hearts."
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On the day she was abducted, Ms Yerushalmi sent a video of rocket fire to her family group chat and said she was leaving the festival, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
She then called the police and pleaded with them to "find me, okay?", as she relayed details of the unfolding massacre.
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For four hours after, she spoke with her sisters May and Shani, who heard everything she went through as she tried to escape.
"Her last words were, 'Shani, they've caught me'," the forum said.
The Israeli Health Ministry said post mortem examinations had determined the hostages had been shot at close range and died on Thursday or Friday.
IDF Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said the bodies were discovered several dozen metres underground while "ongoing combat" was taking place, but that there was no firefight in the tunnel itself.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of killing all six hostages in "cold blood" and said Israel would hold the group accountable.
He also accused the group of scuttling ongoing ceasefire efforts, adding: "Whoever murders hostages doesn't want a deal."
Meanwhile, Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, blamed the hostages' deaths on Israel and the US, saying they would still be alive if Israel had accepted a ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to back in July.
He did not mention the hostages by name.
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