Chilling Hamas video of female Israeli soldiers on Oct. 7 is a ‘wakeup call to the world,’ dad says
The harrowing new video of Hamas terrorists taunting five female Israeli soldiers with rape before abducting them to Gaza should serve as a “wake up call to the world” to end the hostages’ nightmare, the father of one of the young women says.
Shlomi Berger said he was shocked at the footage from a Hamas bodycam showing his bloodied daughter Agam Berger, 19, and four other soldiers handcuffed in their pajamas and surrounded by dozens of Hamas terrorists who took over the Nahal Oz base in southern Israeli.
“This is a wakeup call to the world: look what we’re dealing with,” Shlomi told The Post. “You saw how many terrorists were in that video.
“You only see three minutes, but we know that they sat in the same place for two or three hours, and in front of their eyes they saw their friends that were murdered, on the floor,” he added.
Berger, who watched the video in April and joined other hostage families in approving its release on Wednesday, said it was evident just how terrified his daughter and the other young women were by the terrorists, especially after they were threatened with rape.
“When they said, ‘You are pretty,’ and ‘I can get you pregnant,’ I don’t know what a young girl who is hearing this is thinking,” the heartbroken father said.
“It’s crazy as a father that my girl is in that situation and I can’t help her. I can’t do anything to help her.”
In the sickening video, Hamas terrorists could be heard gloating and announcing their apparent plans to sexually assault the soldiers.
“Here are the girls who can get pregnant,” one of the gunmen said.
“You’re so beautiful.”
While Berger lamented the horrific circumstances his daughter was in, he said his primary goal for making the video public was to push Israeli leaders back into the negotiating table to hash out a deal with Hamas that would finally see Agam and the rest of the captives freed after more than seven months in Gaza.
“We, the families, decided to give the video out today, and we did it because we feel and we see that there is no negotiation and everything is stuck and nothing is moving,” Shlomi said.
“And I don’t know, in this position, when I would see my daughter,” he added. “So we thought about it and decided this was the time to get it out because everybody should wake up, here, in Israel, and also the world.
“I think this is the time to stop trying things that won’t work,” he said of his nation’s current efforts to secure the hostages.
Along with Agam, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified the female soldiers taken captive in the video as Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy.
The young women were performing their compulsory military service stationed at the Nahal Oz surveillance base, which is less than 1,000 yards from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas terrorists stormed the base and slaughtered 15 soldiers and took six hostage on Oct. 7, according to The Times of Israel.
Some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the attack on southern Israel.
The sickening video shows the women injured and bloodied in the aftermath the Nahal Oz base attack, with the soldiers threatened by angry Hamas gunmen who ignored their pleas and rushed them into a vehicle bound for Gaza amid heavy gunfire.
Berger was seen bleeding profusely from her mouth, with the blood dripping down her chin and staining her white pajama pants.
“The video is a damning testament to the nation’s failure to bring home the hostages, who have been forsaken for 229 days,” the group said in a statement urging that the hostage exchange talks with Hamas resume.
“The Israeli government must not waste even one more moment — it must return to the negotiating table today!”
