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by IMEMC News
Oct 13, 2023

A video released by Hamas shows an Israeli woman and two children released after they were detained by Hamas resistance fighters.

The footage showed a woman holding a child’s hand, with a fighter holding the other child, and then letting all three go at a point appearing to be near the Gaza border.

The woman, identified as Avital Aladjem, a resident of kibbutz Holit, later gave an interview to an Israeli news outlet where she described having been taken hostage and then released, along with the two children.

In the interview, she stated, “The resistance fighters provided me with clothes to cover myself, and on my way back from where I was arrested, a Qassam fighter was carrying one of my children on his shoulder, and I was carrying the other”.

Around 150 people were taken hostage by Hamas during Saturday’s assault, according to Israeli officials. According to a video analysis by the Washington Post, 64 people were confirmed as having been taken into Gaza by Hamas fighters on Saturday.

Holding hostages is a rare occurrence for Palestinian resistance groups, with the longest-held hostage having been Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years before he was released in a prisoner exchange for Palestinian prisoners. In footage released of Shalit during his captivity, “Shalit is seen ‘joking’ with his captors and sipping coffee with them on different occasions, all smiles. He is even seen at a barbecue with his captors outside the hideout where he was held. Clearly, he was kept above ground rather than in a dark cellar. The Palestinian narrator in the footage even emphasizes that Shalit received fair and humane treatment from Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in accordance with the rules of Islam pertaining to prisoners of war.”
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IDF says Hamas video purporting to show 3 hostages being released is propaganda

Footage appears to show Avital Aladjem, from Kibbutz Holit, freed at Gaza border along with neighbor’s children; IDF: Footage is days old, from shortly after abduction

By TOI STAFF and JESSICA STEINBERG for The Times of Israel
12 October 2023, 12:15 pm

The Israel Defense Forces Arabic-language spokesperson said Hamas was trying to “alter the truth” of its brutal massacre Saturday with footage broadcast by Al Jazeera claiming to show a woman and her two children being released from the terror group’s captivity.

Al Jazeera on Wednesday broadcast the footage, portraying it as new footage of Hamas releasing hostages.

However, the military said the video was several days old and the incident occurred on Saturday at the height of Hamas’s devastating onslaught on southern communities.

The video showed a woman, Avital Aladjem, in a blue and pink jacket walking toward a child and the two embracing, as gunmen walk away. She is said to be holding a second child.

They appear to be near the Gaza border fence.

“After the entire world saw its ugly, true face as a barbaric organization that executed hundreds of innocent women and children in a terrorist attack and hideous massacre, Hamas is trying to alter the truth through the theatrics of posting a propaganda video via its media mouthpieces,” said the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, hours after the footage was broadcast.

“The truth is clear and obvious, and its character will become clearer in the coming days. Hamas is worse than ISIS, and we will continue to strike it hard without stopping,” he added.

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