New footage shows six Israeli captives held in Gaza tunnel prior to deaths | Israel-Palestine conflict News

The footage, aired on Israeli TV, shows the captives observing Hanukkah in a Gaza tunnel months before they died.

Israeli media outlets have aired footage of six Israeli captives lighting Hanukkah candles in a Hamas tunnel in Gaza, eight months before their deaths during Israel’s genocidal war in the besieged enclave.

The footage, depicting captives Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino and Alex Lobanov, was released online on Thursday night after being aired on Israeli television.

The Israeli military said the footage had been filmed by Hamas for propaganda purposes but never released, and had been recovered by the Israeli military during its operations in Gaza.

The footage, which had previously only been shown to the captives’ families, differed from other clips of Israeli captives released during the war, which typically showed the Israelis reading statements.

It showed the captives marking Hanukkah in December 2023 by lighting candles and singing, some 80 days into their captivity and eight months before they were killed in August 2024.

Israel says the six were killed by being shot at close range by their captors in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood on August 29, 2024, and discovered by the Israeli military two days later, before their remains were returned home.

The captives were also shown eating as they marked the start of the new year in 2024, as well as playing cards and backgammon.

One of the captives, Goldberg-Polin, was shown missing the lower part of his left arm, which was blown off by a grenade during the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli media reported.

The families of the captives depicted in the footage released a statement saying the clips depicted their loved ones’ humanity, unity and strength.

“Lighting the candles in this dark place is the Jewish essence of the heroism of light over darkness,” said the statement.

“Hamas filmed the videos as part of a plot to spread propaganda, but the humanity of the six heroes shines through.”

Israeli media reported that the bodies of the six captives were found about 1km (0.6 miles) from where another captive, Farhan al-Qadi, had been rescued by the Israeli military just days earlier.

The return of the captives, both living and dead, was a central plank of the US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

On October 13, as per the deal, Hamas released all 20 remaining living Israeli captives in exchange for 250 Palestinians serving long prison sentences and 1,700 Palestinians disappeared by Israel since the start of the war. Many of the returned Palestinians described beatings and abuse during their time in Israeli detention.

In subsequent exchanges of remains, 27 of the 28 bodies of Israeli captives have been returned, as well as more than 300 Palestinian bodies, many of which were mutilated and showed signs of torture and execution. Many remain unidentified, leaving families with missing relatives unable to find closure in their mourning.

Hamas has said it requires heavy excavation equipment to recover the last remaining Israeli captive’s body from under the rubble caused by Israeli bombardment.