Hostage Video from January Released

The family of Israeli hostage Daniella Gilboa has released a Hamas propaganda video taken back in January. Daniella Gilboa was 19 when she was abducted from Israel and now her parents are working to draw attention to the urgency of rescuing her and the other captives. In the three-minute clip, Gilboa pleads for her life, claiming she has been abandoned by the Israeli government. The video, previously unpublished by Israeli media, was part of Hamas’s efforts to pressure Israel into a hostage deal. Gilboa’s family hopes the release will bolster support for ongoing negotiations among Israel, Egypt, Qatar, and the US. It is thought that 116 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th remain in Gaza, though not all are alive. In November, 105 civilians were released in a weeklong truce in late November and four hostages were rescued on June 8th.

Andrey Kozlov, one of the four recently freed from Hamas captivity, shared in a recent interview that his captors threatened to murder him and use the execution for propaganda. He moved to Israel from Russia only 18 months before he was captured. In interviews, he described the severe psychological distress he endured during his eight months in Gaza, constantly fearing death every minute as his captors held large knives on them. Kozlov emphasized that the captors used psychological terror to break the hostages, often verbally abusing them and making false claims about their families’ indifference. He says he now knows the arabic words for donkey and other swears. Hamas captors told him his mother was on vacation in Greece and that his girlfriend was dating another man. That was also told to the other male captives.