Latest news with #OhadBenAmi
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Dragged away to Hell: Terrifying new October 7 footage shows kidnapped Israeli led through Gaza by Hamas terrorists as baying mob tries to lynch him... before being starved and tortured for 491 days
This is the terrifying new October 7 footage that shows a kidnapped Israeli hostage being dragged through Gaza by armed Hamas terrorists as a baying mob tries to lynch him. Ohad Ben Ami, a father of three daughters from Kibbutz Be'eri, was held captive for 491 days in a tunnel in Gaza where he was deliberately starved and endured severe physical and psychological torture. It has since been revealed that once he was underground, terrorists subjected Ben Ami to barbaric conditions: they hung him upside down by his feet, throttled him with rope, and held him in a dark tunnel so tiny he had to learn to walk again. The horrifying new video shows the then-55 year old seeing daylight for what would be the last time for over a year, as he is manhandled through narrow streets by Hamas gunmen as crowds of shouting civilian men swarm towards him. In more footage made public by the IDF for the first time, Hamas terrorists are seen returning to Kibbutz Be'eri to capture Ben Ami's wife, Raz, and kidnap her to the Strip. A crowd of plain-clothed terrorists escort the mother, wearing a black and white dress, on foot through the border fence, where she was then forced to spend the next 54 days confined in Hamas captivity in Gaza's tunnel network. The shocking video shows the final moments before Ben Ami was trapped 30 metres (100 feet) underground in a space measuring only six square metres (65 square feet) with six other hostages for almost 500 days. 'We received food twice a day that amounted to 700 calories at best,' the accountant said after his release, describing how Hamas subjected the hostages to deliberate starvation by giving them only a rotten pita every few days. 'Most of our time was spent trying to guess what we would get to eat, when it would happen, whether we would get a whole pita for each person or just half, whether there would also be a cup of rice, [and] whether we got leftovers from our captors,' he told the Jerusalem Post. The hostages were trapped between concrete 'without air to breathe', he recalled, describing the dire conditions of captivity. 'We slept close together on a thin, damp, and wet mattress, with the same blanket that had been used as a sheet for over a year. 'Insects in the tunnel would get into our noses, mouths, ears, and everywhere else possible.' He and his cell mates were only allowed to shower once every few weeks in 'cold, salty water', and they each wore the same set of clothes the entire time. Illness was rampant underground, and spread quickly between the hostages, with diarrhea and an upset stomach being common among them due to a lack of medicine. 'When someone is sick, everyone is sick. Everything was contagious and exhausting because we lost fluids, and there were several cases where we lost consciousness due to high fever.' Ben Ami and fellow Israeli hostages Or Levy and Eli Sharabi were together subjected to extreme physical torture underground. Israel was distraught to discover how the trio were choked, bound, gagged with cloth to the point of suffocation, hung upside down, and burned with a physical object by their captors in Gaza, reported Haaretz. The hostages were also psychologically taunted by Hamas operatives, who would eat food in front of them, force them to pick which hostages ate and who starved, and even demanded they choose who among their fellow captives who should be killed. Quoted in the Times of Israel, Ben Ami described the sadistic games Hamas would play on the hostages: 'A commander, probably a senior one, came to us and cocked his gun, and said: "Choose three people to die and three people who I will shoot in the kneecap." 'They made us decide which three should take a bullet to the head, and which three a bullet to the knee. 'We had to debate this for an entire hour, all while they filmed us. They let each of us speak and explain why we deserved to live, why we deserved to die, or why we deserved to be shot in the knee.' When the men failed to volunteer themselves or select any fellow captives for death, Hamas operatives would give them the chance to be pardoned - by forcing them to speak badly about the Israeli government. The terrorists would show the hostages statements from Israeli politicians and reports of efforts to sabotage the deal, taunting them with phrases like: 'They don't want to free you' or 'This is how they treat you.' After 51 grueling days in captivity, Ben Ami's wife, Raz, was set free in November 2023. It wasn't until February 2025 that Ben-Ami, 56, Levy, 34, and Sharabi, 52, were released, shocking the world with their emaciated bodies. Health officials took to Hebrew media to report how the three men had suffered malnutrition, decreased muscle mass, heart disorders, and prolonged infection. On October 7, armed Hamas terrorists killed 101 civilians and 31 security personnel during the massacre at Kibbutz Be'eri. A further 30 residents and two more civilians were taken hostage. Ben Ami and his wife have three daughters: Yulie, Natalie, and Ella. On seeing her father for the first time in 491 days, Ella said nothing could have prepared her for seeing the gaunt look of his face and body. 'What you all saw yesterday on TV, the difficult sight that makes you want to throw the TV to the ground, that's my father. He endured horrors. We haven't even begun to hear in-depth about the hell he was in,' reported Haaretz 'My father survived as a hero and returned with his head held high,' she said. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others in an attack on October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. They still hold 50 hostages, around 20 of them believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Nahar Net
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Israel's ceasefire with Hamas in doubt again
by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 February 2025, 14:58 A ceasefire in Gaza was in doubt as the region marked 500 days of Israel's war with Hamas, while Israel and the United States sent conflicting signals over whether they want the truce to continue. Talks on the ceasefire's second phase are yet to start. 500 days of war in Gaza Israelis held protests calling for the Gaza ceasefire to be extended so that more hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 attack can be freed. An Israeli official said four bodies are expected to be returned to Israel on Thursday. The official gave no further details and spoke on condition of anonymity because details were being arranged. So far, no bodies have been handed over during the ceasefire's current phase. There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Israeli officials have said they believe eight of the 33 people to be returned in the ceasefire's first phase are dead. Hamas is gradually releasing the 33 in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces have pulled back from most parts of Gaza and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid. This first phase ends in less than two weeks. Negotiations on the more difficult second phase — which would release more hostages and see the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza — should have started two weeks ago. "All I care about, all I want, is for my friends to return. There were six of us living in unbearable conditions" Ohad Ben Ami, released a week and a half ago, told Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Families have described loved ones barefoot or in chains. "It's just not within the realm of possibility that they're still there," said protester Eleanor Satlow in Jerusalem. Others rallied in Tel Aviv, where newly released hostage Iair Horn told them: "I'm telling you, the hostages don't have time, we don't have time." His brother Eitan is still in Gaza. In the second phase, Hamas would release over 70 remaining hostages — around half believed to be dead — in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners and a lasting ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump 's administration say they are committed to the eradication of Hamas and the return of all hostages. Those goals are widely seen as incompatible. The militant group, though weakened, remains in control of Gaza. Hamas has said it is willing to relinquish power to other Palestinians but will not accept any occupying force. Israel welcomes Trump's proposal Trump calls for Gaza's population of over 2 million to be permanently relocated to other countries and for the United States to take ownership of the territory. Israel welcomes the plan, while Palestinians and Arab nations have rejected it. Rights groups say implementation would likely violate international law. Egypt is working on a counter-plan to rebuild Gaza without removing Palestinians. Hamas-led militants in their Oct. 7 attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. More than half of the hostages have been returned. Eight have been rescued in military operations. Israel's air and ground war has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. "Everything is destroyed, nothing is left in Gaza, Gaza is not fit for life," said one resident, Mohammed Barash, reflecting on 500 days of war. Settlement expansion is set to accelerate A watchdog opposed to Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory said Israel has issued a tender for the construction of nearly 1,000 additional settler homes in the occupied West Bank. Peace Now said the 974 new housing units would allow the population of the Efrat settlement to expand by 40% and further block the development of the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem. There was no immediate Israeli government comment. Israel has built over 100 settlements across the West Bank, ranging from hilltop outposts to fully developed communities. Over 500,000 settlers live in the West Bank, home to about 3 million Palestinians. The settlers have Israeli citizenship. Palestinians live under military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want them for their future state.
Egypt Independent
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Egypt Independent
Holocaust becomes political bludgeon as Netanyahu returns to a country at crossroads
CNN — As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from a week-long trip to Washington, toting a fantastical and radical Gaza plan from the American president, he finds a country at a crossroads. Will Israel return to war in Gaza? Or will the ceasefire hold, and more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners see freedom? US President Donald Trump wants America to control Gaza and for the 2.1 million Palestinians who live there to leave. The gaunt appearance of three Israelis released from Hamas captivity has traumatized the nation. A month-old ceasefire expires in just over two weeks and talks to extend it have barely begun, if at all. Memories and images of the Holocaust have always loomed over the Israeli psyche. But now, at a critical time in the 16-month-long Gaza war, a battle to define the lessons of that slaughter is being played out across Israeli society. 'Holocaust survivors' On Saturday, Israelis gathered around their televisions as they have every weekend for a month, to see their compatriots released from more than a year of captivity in Gaza. Hamas' highly staged handover ceremonies are fraught. Just a week ago, many Israelis got flashbacks to the scenes of October 7, 2023, as militants pushed Arbel Yehoud through a jostling crowd. But the nation was not prepared for the image of three skeletal figures – Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy – as Hamas militants led them from a van in Deir al-Balah this weekend. Emaciated, with sunken faces, the three appeared barely able to walk on their own. Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy are escorted by Hamas militants in Gaza on Saturday. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Ohad Ben Ami's relatives react as he appears on stage during a handover Images To many, the image drew immediate parallels to the survivors of Nazi death camps. 'The three who returned today are Holocaust survivors,' Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is still held in Gaza, said later that day. When the prime minister expressed outrage at their appearance, the opposition leader Yair Lapid hit back: 'Netanyahu, did you just now discover that the condition of the hostages is dire?' Hamas and its allies continue to hold 73 hostages taken on October, of whom at least 34 are believed to be dead by the Israeli government. Netanyahu has long been accused, with some evidence, of deliberately blocking previous ceasefire deals. In a tell-all interview with Israel's Channel 12 on Thursday, the former defense minister Yoav Gallant – fired by Netanyahu last year after months of tension – agreed. 'This offer from early July that Hamas agreed to is identical to the offer now, only less good in some respects,' he said of the ceasefire agreement adopted in January. 'There are fewer live hostages, unfortunately. More time has passed. And we are paying a heavier price here, because there are at least 110 more murderers who will be released in this process.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel on Sunday after spending a week in Washington. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters Yoav Gallant, Israel's former defense minister, said in an interview last week that a ceasefire proposal from last July 'is identical to the offer now.' Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry Previous hostages have been freed in relative health – albeit, doctors say, malnourished and traumatized. With the release of the three gaunt men this weekend, Hamas appeared to be sending a message at a critical moment. 'Seeing the three hostages this morning as if they had been liberated from World War II concentration camps should compel us all to accelerate the release of all hostages,' the veteran Israeli negotiator-turned-peace activist Gershon Baskin said on Saturday. Even the US president weighed in. 'They look like they've aged 25 years,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. 'They literally look like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors. The same thing.' It should be noted, of course, that many Palestinian prisoners who have been released from Israeli jails say that they were deliberately starved. Mohammad El-Halabi, an aid worker who was charged in 2016 with funneling money to Hamas in a case disputed by international human rights groups, was among those released earlier this month. 'The food was not even sufficient for a small child,' he told CNN. The Israel Prison Service says that 'all prisoners are detained according to the law,' and that people can file complaints if they feel they have been mistreated. 'Total victory' Just as some see in the Holocaust an argument to accelerate a deal for more hostages, others draw on a deep strain in Israeli culture – that, no matter what, Jews will never again be victims. 'We became a nation of victims – we were the perfect victim,' Netanyahu told Fox News this weekend. 'I don't seek wars – I seek to end wars. But if a war is foisted on me, like these monsters foisted on us, we will defeat them. And we will achieve total victory over them. No question about that.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with US President Donald Trump in Washington on February 4. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters Speaking on Holocaust Remembrance Day last year, he said that 'a straight line, as sinister as can be, connects the murderers of old to the murderers of today.' Though his foreign minister, Gideon Saar, also drew the comparison between the Holocaust and the gaunt Israeli hostages released this weekend, Netanyahu has so far avoided their comparison. His extremist finance minister is similarly skeptical. 'The suffering of our hostages in Hamas' brutal captivity is heartbreaking,' Bezalel Smotrich said this weekend. 'But comparisons to the Holocaust are a grave mistake and are based on the contempt for the Holocaust.' His opinions carry weight. Smotrich is at the height of his powers. After Itamar Ben Gvir quit his post as national security minister over the Gaza ceasefire, Smotrich's right-wing Religious Zionism party became the keystone to Netanyahu's ability to govern. He has also threatened to quit, if Israel doesn't return to war in Gaza. It is little surprise that Netanyahu waited until this weekend – a week after a deadline for further ceasefire talks – to send a delegation to Qatar. Israeli media is rife with speculation that he is simply running out the clock until phase one of the deal expires on March 1. Displaced Palestinians walking toward northern Gaza on Sunday. Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images 'We're going to get 75 percent of the living hostages out,' he told Fox News, before hastening to add: 'Which – and I intend to get all of them out.' If Netanyahu does return Israel to war in Gaza, Trump's desire for Palestinians to leave will become unavoidable. Trump's plan is radical. If Palestinians were forced to leave – or encouraged, by prolonging dire humanitarian conditions – it would almost certainly constitute ethnic cleansing under international law. But Trump has recognized, in the simplistic way of a populist, that paying lip service to the two-state solution has only entrenched the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 'We're going to finish Hamas off,' Netanyahu said in that interview. 'And what happens then? Do we leave the people there with all that devastation? Do you say, 'Well, they have to stay in, confined?' Because nobody lets them leave. Everybody describes Gaza as the biggest open-air prison in the world. You know why? Because they're not allowed to leave.' Never one to waste an opportunity, Ben Gvir – a far-right politician who carries a conviction of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization – also seized on the hostages' appearance. 'This is a holocaust,' he said. 'Encourage voluntary immigration now.' Abeer Salman, Lauren Izso, Dana Karni and Eugenia Yosef contributed to this report.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'He looked so skinny,' says relative of released Israeli hostage
STORY: :: The sister-in-law of Ohad Ben Ami reacts to his release after 15 months in Hamas captivity :: Tel Mond, Israel :: Ayelet Hakim, Relative of released Israeli hostage "It's a mix of feelings. I feel a lot of joy, of course, saying Ohad coming back. It was really very happy occasion. But when I saw them coming out of the car in Gaza, it was horrible. My heart sank and I was really, really overwhelmed from the way he looked so skinny. And so pale. And he looked like he was suffering for a very, very long time." :: Tel Aviv, Israel "I can't even imagine how a person that been out of contact with his family for so long in such bad conditions suddenly see all his family again, it's really unbelievable." Ohad Ben Ami was among the three Israeli hostages released on Saturday who all appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war. Various U.N reports stated that more than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing 'extremely critical' levels of hunger. The first phase of the ceasefire has largely held since it took effect on January 19. However, fears have grown that the deal might collapse before all 76 remaining hostages held by Hamas are freed.
Gulf Today
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Trump says US might lose patience with ceasefire deal over Israeli hostages' appearance
President Trump on Sunday said he was losing patience with the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after seeing footage of the Palestinian militant group release Israeli hostages over the weekend, whose appearance he compared to Holocaust survivors. Trump's reaction to seeing images of the three hostages, who appeared gaunt upon their release on Saturday, brought fresh uncertainty over the deal's fate before all remaining 76 hostages are freed and came days after the president called for the removal of Palestinians from the enclave and for the U.S. to take control of it. "They look like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. "I don't know how much longer we can take that ... at some point we're going to lose our patience." "I know we have a deal ... they dribble in and keep dribbling in ... but they are in really bad shape," Trump said of the Israeli hostages. Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen on Saturday ahead of their release to Israeli authorities. The three men appeared in worse condition than the 18 other hostages previously freed under the truce, which was agreed to on January 15 months into the war. Many Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel have also appeared thin and emaciated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday the sight of the frail hostages was shocking and would be addressed. In exchange for the three men, Israel freed 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday. Trump also told reporters he remained committed to having the U.S. buy and take ownership of Gaza after Palestinians leave or are removed from the enclave, a surprise announcement he made February 4 during Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington. He said other countries may take part in rebuilding sections of Gaza. "As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we're committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn't move back.
