At least four Israeli civilians were killed over the weekend soon after being taken hostage by Hamas fighters, according to footage viewed by The Daily Beast and confirmed by multiple other outlets.
The original video, which was shared widely on social media, showed four barefoot hostages being pushed through the street with their hands behind their backs, led by unidentified militia men in military clothing holding assault rifles. A second video, taken nearby, shows four people wearing identical outfits lying in the pavement or on the adjacent sandy terrain.
CNN and The Washington Post previously reported on the deaths and confirmed the authenticity of the videos, which was first geolocated by the Center for Information Resilience’s Rollo Collins and Benjamin den Braber.
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More than 200 people were killed or kidnapped by Hamas militants during a surprise attack on an Israeli music festival on Saturday. Other clashes broke out elsewhere in the country, with scores of civilians and Israeli forces killed or kidnapped.
Hamas has threatened to kill more captives if the retaliatory airstrikes don’t cease. “From this moment on, we announce that every targeting of our people who are safe in their homes without prior warning will be met with regret by the execution of one or our enemy’s civilian hostages and we will broadcast this with sound and video,” a spokesperson for the group said.
The United States considers Hamas a terrorist organization. The group controls the government in Gaza.
Israel has since blitzed Gaza with bombings, decimating buildings and killing both armed fighters and civilians.
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed,” Israel’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, said. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
Even people within Gaza aren’t united about Hamas’ tactics. “You should not do the wrong thing, just because the Israelis are doing the wrong thing,” 61-year-old Nema Yousef, from Gaza City, told The Daily Beast on Monday. “If they do this, they will be like ISIS, who damaged the image of Islam.”
Another person from the same city, Rana Ibrahim, defended the attacks on hostages, saying, “this should be done because no one in the world is caring for us.”
So far, more than 900 Israelis have reportedly been killed in the fighting, according to Israeli officials, with over two times as many people labeled wounded. Palestinian officials pegged the death count in Gaza at 560, with nearly three thousand people wounded.
The Biden Administration has signaled its support for Israel, though as of now has no plans to directly involve American troops.
“There’s no intention to put U.S. boots on the ground,” John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, said on Monday. Still, he added, the United States will defend its interests, “particularly in that part of the world.”
