Hamas forced child hostage to watch footage of Oct. 7 massacre, threatened to shoot child captives
Hamas forced a child hostage to watch footage of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 rape and slaughter of Israeli families while in captivity, according to a recent interview with a 12-year-old boy’s aunt after his release.
Eitan Yahalomi was released Monday as part of a multi-day pause in the fighting as part of an agreement between Israel and Hamas, which officially went into effect last Friday. The terrorist group held the boy hostage for over 50 days.
Per the agreement, Hamas will release at least 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for triple the number of Palestinian prisoners held on terror charges before the Israeli military resumes operations against the terror group in Northern Gaza Strip.
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In a Tuesday interview with the French media outlet BFM, Yahalomi’s aunt, Deborah Cohen, said Gazan residents beat her nephew when he arrived in the city as a hostage. She also described Hamas terrorists using their rifles and threatening to shoot the abducted children when they cried.
“I wanted to hope that he was treated well, but it turns out he wasn’t; they’re monsters,” she said. “Now that I know this, I’m worried. His father is still there, and there are 160 people who have not yet returned.”
Yahalomi’s father was wounded in a gun battle with Hamas terrorists before they captured him and took him into Gaza, according to the report. While the boy was originally taken hostage alongside his mother and two sisters, his family managed to escape, whereas Yahalomi was taken into Gaza on a moped.
During his captivity, Cohen said that Hamas forced her nephew to watch videos of the terror group’s onslaught against southern Israel last month when the terrorists murdered 1,200 people and injured thousands of others. Hamas also seized around 240 people as hostages during its attacks.
As The Times of Israel reported in an article updated Wednesday, Hamas has released 30 children during the temporary ceasefire agreement, but nine remain in captivity.
One of the hostages is 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his brother, Ariel, and his parents, Yarden and Shiri. The outlet reported Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces had said Hamas transferred the family to another Palestinian terror group after it abducted them.
As The Christian Post reported earlier this month, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews hosted a private screening at the Israel Embassy in Washington, D.C., showing the atrocities Hamas committed on Oct. 7.
The footage shown to attendees came from body cameras worn by Hamas terrorists, security cameras, social media posts, cell phone cameras and first responders.
In the first set of clips, Hamas militants are seen breaking through the border, and after infiltrating Israel, the terrorists begin shooting at cars driving along a highway. The footage then showed the terrorists dragging the dead and bloodied bodies out of the vehicles battered by bullet holes. Another clip showed a terrorist trying to use a farming tool in an attempt to decapitate a lifeless body.
Other video clips showed Hamas militants shooting at attendees of the Supernova Music Festival, which resulted in the murder of over 300 people at the event. Some clips also showed attendees attempting to flee through a nearby field as Hamas terrorists shot at them.
A separate video showed first responders arriving at the scene of the festival, walking by piles and piles of dead bodies in search of survivors. The first responder recording the video continued walking around the festival grounds, asking any survivors to give a sign of life. At one point, he checked behind a bar, only to find more dead bodies.
Hamas militants also broke into people’s homes, with footage from an in-home security camera showing a father and his two young sons trying to flee their home, but the father was killed by a grenade.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
