Hamas forced hostages to recite scripts in videos pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate a deal for a ceasefire, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Aviva Siegel, a now-released hostage, recounted how Hamas ordered her to partake in photo and scripted video shoots, often in the background of abuse and poor living conditions, that pressured Netanyahu to negotiate an end to the Israel-Hamas war, according to the WSJ. Israeli hostage negotiators and officials called the tactics a form of “psychological terror.”
“‘You didn’t say that you’re 62.’ ‘You didn’t say that you’re from Kfar Aza.’ ‘You didn’t say that Bibi needs to bring you back,’” Siegel said her captors told her, according to the WSJ. “I always forgot something, So I had to say it again and again and again.”
Her captors also tried to make her more presentable on camera by giving her a brush for her hair, according to the WSJ. Sometimes, they would film during a meal.
“We had to sit next to them and smile and say everything is OK, just for the picture,” Siegel told the WSJ.
Making these videos under duress can be a war crime, as defined by international law, according to the WSJ. Israeli media initially did not air the videos, but as frustration from the families grows, some have begun showing them in order to keep the hostage issue alive.
“Hamas is exploiting the public sentiment, which is beginning to become a lot louder and a lot larger,” Gershon Baskin, an Israeli hostage negotiator, told the WSJ. “Hamas wants this war to end, and this is how they think that pressure can be put on Netanyahu.”
Families of the hostages featured in the videos say that as difficult as they are to watch, they give them hope that their loved ones may still be alive.
“It’s a very slow-motion form of trauma and torture,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin told the WSJ about a video featuring her son Hersh, an American-Israeli who is now deceased. “And the ironic, dismaying part of that is how many hostage families say to us, we would give anything to have that video.”
In May, Israel released a then-unreleased video that had kidnapped 8-year-old Ella Elyakim, begging for Netanyahu to release her, according to the WSJ. She was released as part of a ceasefire deal in November.
The video producers showed a deep understanding of Israeli society, with one producer Siegel met speaking Hebrew, according to the WSJ. The hostages were forced to make these videos since the very start of their captivity, with Hamas storing them in an archive.
Chen Almog-Goldstein, who was taken hostage alongside her three children, recounted being filmed inside tunnels in Gaza on their second day of captivity, with Hamas giving the family Israeli snacks to hold, the WSJ reported.
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