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Disturbing New Video Shows Hamas Terrorists Kidnapping Female Israeli Hostages on Oct. 7
Hamas terrorists kidnapping Israeli women at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot
A disturbing new video shows the moments when five female Israeli soldiers, covered in blood, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 at the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip.
In the video, Hamas terrorists force the young women, some of whom are teenagers, against a wall and threaten to kill them. The video was edited to remove graphic images of multiple dead bodies lying around them.
In the midst of dozens of Hamas terrorists surrounding and yelling at the girls, a terrorist appears to call them “beautiful.” Additionally, there is debate over whether one of the terrorist referred to the captives as what amounts to a sex slave or if he was saying the word “young woman,” which sounds similar.
“The video of the female observers’ abduction is a wake-up call to the civilized world,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which released the video on Wednesday, wrote on X/Twitter. “We must condemn those actions and we cannot abandon the hostages held captive for 229 days.”
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists kidnapped over 250 people and murdered 1,200 others during their surprise invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7. About 125 hostages, including the five women in the video, remain unaccounted for, either dead or alive in Gaza. The rest have either been rescued by Israeli forces or released as part of a temporary ceasefire last year.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum argued the video shows why “the Israeli government and the international community can’t waste another moment.” It concluded, “We must get back to the negotiation table today! #BringThemHomeNow.”
Trigger alert –
The video of the female observers’ abduction, is a wake-up call to the civilized world. We must condemn those actions and we can not abandon the hostages held captive for 229 days.
This video, captured by the body cameras of Hamas terrorists on October 7th,… pic.twitter.com/wuRxpsTBtA
— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) May 22, 2024
One of the hostages, Naama Levy, can be seen pleading with the terrorists, saying, “I have friends in Palestine.”
Levy participated in a program called Hands of Peace in 2022, which was a three-week dialogue-based program for American, Israeli, and Palestinian teenagers. During a speech she gave at the program, she explained the reason she joined Hands of Peace: “I wanted to hear the other side. We live so close to each other but we never actually get to talk to one another.”
The other hostages in the video have been identified as Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa, Liri Albag, and Karina Ariev.
Women who have been released from Hamas captivity have said they experienced sexual assault and other forms of torture in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he was planning to show European diplomats the video of the women being kidnapped amid the decision of Ireland, Spain, and Norway to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.
Seth Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, wrote that he was disturbed by the fact that the women in the video were essentially abandoned.
“Not one of their commanding officers has been relieved of command. There’s an entire command structure above them that abandoned them there for many hours,” he said.
Frantzman added, “The women were unarmed, and despite many warnings from the women, who served as IDF [Israel Defense Forces] observers monitoring screens watching Gaza, the brass did not stay alert to the rising Hamas threat.”
The video comes amid rising pressure on Israel’s government by the families of hostages to come to a deal to secure their release. Many of the families do not believe the government, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has done enough to reach a deal.
The post Disturbing New Video Shows Hamas Terrorists Kidnapping Female Israeli Hostages on Oct. 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations into Abraham Accords, Sources Say
US President Donald Trump points a finger as he delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 31, 2025. Photo: Kent Nishimura via Reuters Connect
President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Such an expansion would reflect Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while war rages in Gaza.
The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognize Israel without steps towards Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbor Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.
While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said.
As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted.
The State Department, asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” said a US official.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.
The White House, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel.
OBSTACLES REMAIN
The original Abraham Accords – inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – were centered on restoration of ties. The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power.
Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West. The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region.
Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to a president who is known to talk up even relatively small victories.
Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic – but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced.
But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict.
Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset authorities in Yerevan.
Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,” Trump told reporters earlier in July. “And it’s pretty close.”
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Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara
A Polisario fighter sits on a rock at a forward base, on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, Sept. 9, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Zohra Bensemra / File.
US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, saying a Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory was the sole solution to the disputed region, state news agency MAP said on Saturday.
The long-frozen conflict pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state there.
Trump at the end of his first term in office recognized the Moroccan claims to Western Sahara, which has phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds, as part of a deal under which Morocco agreed to normalize its relations with Israel.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made clear in April that support for Morocco on the issue remained US policy, but these were Trump’s first quoted remarks on the dispute during his second term.
“I also reiterate that the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supports Morocco’s serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” MAP quoted Trump as saying in a message to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
“Together we are advancing shared priorities for peace and security in the region, including by building on the Abraham Accords, combating terrorism and expanding commercial cooperation,” Trump said.
As part of the Abraham Accords signed during Trump’s first term, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
In June this year, Britain became the third permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to back an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory after the U.S. and France.
Algeria, which has recognized the self-declared Sahrawi Republic, has refused to take part in roundtables convened by the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara and insists on holding a referendum with independence as an option.
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Israel Says Its Missions in UAE Remain Open Despite Reported Security Threats
President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities.
This includes, the statement underlined, ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, reports appeared in Israeli media that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country for fear of an Iranian or Iran-sponsored attacks.
“We are emphasizing this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organizations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” the NSC said in a statement.
After signing the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the UAE has been among the closest regional allies of the Jewish state.
Israel is concerned about its citizens and diplomats being targeted in retaliatory attacks following its 12-day war against Iran last month.
Earlier this year, the UAE sentenced three citizens of Uzbekistan to death for last year’s murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Cohen.