Harrowing footage showing the final months of six Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas has been released by the families, offering a chilling and unusually intimate glipse into life inside captivity.
The videos, filmed by Hamas and later recovered by the Israel Defense Forces during operations in Gaza, were aired on Israeli television and made public days before Hanukkah begins this year.
The footage shows six captives who were captured in the October 7th attacks: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino and Alex Lobanov.
The hostages are shown together inside a Hamas tunnel during the early months of their captivity, long before they were murdered by their captors in August 2024.
Among the most haunting scenes is footage of the hostages marking Hanukkah in December 2023, lighting makeshift candles fashioned from paper cups and singing the traditional song Ma’oz Tzur.
The clips were filmed after roughly 80 days in captivity, eight months before all six were killed.
The hostages were killed before New Years Eve 2024, but the video shows them marking the celebration and sharing a piece of fruit, as their captors appeared to attempt to project a distorted image of daily life in captivity.
While Hamas filmed the videos for propaganda purposes, the footage stands apart from other hostage clips released during the war, which typically showed captives reading statements believed to have been dictated by their kidnappers.
Instead, the material offers longer, more candid moments between the hostages themselves.
At one point, Goldberg-Polin is heard comparing their situation to that of Jews living under Nazi rule.
‘There’s that picture of the Hanukkiah with a [Nazi flag] above it,’ he reflects in one of the clips.
Throughout the footage, the hostages’ voices can be heard as they sing, talk about their different religious backgrounds and discuss their lives before captivity.
There’s a clear sense of camaraderie, as the six hostages take care of one another, trying to survive in the tough conditions.
When a Hamas captor entered the room, their faces were covered with green Hamas bandannas and the hostages would interact with them only when necessary.
The hostages were killed by their captors in the tunnel shown in the video in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood on August 29, 2024.
Their bodies were discovered by troops two days later in the narrow, dark tunnel.
The Israeli Health Ministry said that autopsies had determined the hostages were shot at close range.
The hostages were found surrounded by bottles filled with dark urine and a plastic bucket which was used as a basic toilet.
Hours of video were recovered by Israeli forces, though until now the material had been shown only to the families of the victims.
Portions were later broadcast by Channel 12’s investigative programme Uvda but the footage was never officially released by Hamas.
Family members of each hostage were interviewed. They described the intense feelings of seeing their loved ones alive in the videos.
‘It’s very confusing, it feels like he’s right there,’ said Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the bereaved mother of murdered Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
She added: ‘What heroes,’ said Rachel Goldberg-Polin. ‘Six young luminous people who did everything right and they stayed alive and they did their part. And for us to claim we brought them back, in bags, bags of children to their parents — please don’t count Hersh among the people you saved.’
Almog Sarusi’s father said that his son was always filmed smiling. During the Hanukkah video, Sarusi grins widely, wishing everyone a happy holiday while hoping to be home soon.
In the interviews, the families also discussed their deep anger and dismay with the Israeli government after it decided to continue fighting in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood in July 2024, knowing there were hostages there.
