At the SuperNova Festival on October 7

A still from footage showing the capture and abduction of Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023. (The Hostages Families Forum)

"The harsh video is a serious indictment of the neglect that has been going on for 262 days."

"Hersh, Eliya and Or were kidnapped alive and so they have to return, today."

"Every day that passes endangers the abductees and may torpedo the ability to bring them home."

Hostages Forum statement

"[It] breaks all of our hearts, and once again emphasizes the cruelty of the enemy that we have pledged to eliminate."

"We will not stop the war until we bring all of our 120 loved ones home."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Screenshots of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin (left), Eliya Cohen (middle) and Or Levy (right) as they were taken hostage into Gaza by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Early in the morning of October 7 two Israeli men desperately sought shelter while at the Supernova Music Festival in southern Israel, as a result of a dual episode unfolding; rockets inundating the area from Gaza, and a sudden appearance of Palestinian terrorists flooding the area. The rocket barrage and the unnerving presence of terrorists launching a gun and grenade attack prompted Hersh Goldberg-Polin and his friend Aner Shapira to race across a field to a shelter.

Built to allow ten people to fit within, the field shelter was already crowded with almost 30 Supernova attendees. And then the Hamas terrorists arrived on site and tossed in their grenades. Aner Shapira responded with heroic intent -- catching seven grenades and tossing them back at the terrorists. The eighth grenade killed him. And his companion, Goldberg-Polin had his right arm blown off from the elbow down.

In the same field shelter as Goldberg-Polin and Shapira, Eliya Cohen and Ziv Abud, his girlfriend, along with her niece and nephew's girlfriend were also hiding. The niece and girlfriend of Abud's nephew were killed. Abud and Cohen lay hidden under the dead bodies, holding hands, and whispering. Then Abud felt Cohen pulled away, and watched him being placed on a pickup truck which drove off. 

 

At the same field shelter were Or Levy and Eynav his wife, both of whom ran from the attack at the Supernova festival. At the shelter the terrorist attack killed Eynav, leaving her husband Or to be taken as a hostage to Gaza. Their son Almog's third birthday took place Tuesday in the absence of his parents. In April Hamas published a video of Goldberg-Polin, his right lower arm missing. He has had eight months in captivity to become accustomed to the loss of that arm. 

 

On October 7, 2023, Eliya Cohen, Hirsh Goldberg-Polin and Or Levy, bloodied and terrified were shoved onto a pickup truck's flatbed. Hamas operatives with AK-47s pointed straight to the sky shouted "Allahu akbar" as the truck barrelled into Gaza down a one-lane road. A Hamas video discovered by the Israel Defense Forces show images of that ride. The families of the three hostages shown in the video gave permission for the the video to be publicly shared.

 

Hostage families in fearful grieving, endlessly call out for a hostage agreement that would bring home the living captives and enable them to bury those hostages either killed in captivity or taken as corpses into Gaza. The video footage represents the third section of a Hamas video showing the chronology of events for the thee hostages the morning of October 7 where one section published months ago showed the terrorists throwing grenades at the field shelter. 

 

A screenshot of Hersh Goldberg-Polin (left) and his friend, Aner Shapira, in a field shelter early Saturday morning, October 7, 2023. Goldberg-Polin is missing, Shapira was later declared dead (Courtesy)

 

The second portion is where Goldberg-Polin is led by terrorists onto the flatbed of the truck, clutching his tourniquet-bound arm, just blown off below the elbow when the field shelter was grenaded, all 30 people inside, fruitlessly sheltering from the attack. The third portion, two minutes in length had been blurred in respect for the families that requested it be edited. A stitched-together entire video was released by The Hostages Forum, as well.

On that fateful day of indescribable agony for the 1,200 Israeli citizens who were butchered, the women and children who were mutilated and gang-raped before death, and the families burnt alive in their homes, while Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PLFP terrorists revelled in the sadistic pleasure they took from their savage attacks, proudly videoing everything from body cams to be uploaded to social media as an example of Palestinian courage in the face of an enemy citizenry, 364 people at the festival alone were slaughtered, 40 taken hostage amidst the orgy of brutality and sexual assaults in acts of human depravity shared by Palestinian citizens.