The video showed the hostage with his brother Yair, shortly before the latter was released. Netanyahu slammed Hamas for its “cruel propaganda.”
JNS Staff
(JNS)
The Hamas terrorist organization released on Saturday evening footage of Eitan Horn, an Israeli abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023, Gazan invasion of the northwestern Negev and still held captive in the Strip.
The video was apparently filmed a short while before Eitan, now aged 38, was separated from his brother Yair, who was released from captivity on Feb. 15.
The brothers were shown in the footage holding each other and bursting in tears. Eitan Horn speaks to the camera, pleading with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign an agreement on the second phase of the ceasefire, so he can be freed as well.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, “The terrorist organization Hamas released another cruel propaganda video this evening, in which our hostages are forced to serve as tools for psychological warfare.
“Israel will not be deterred by Hamas’s propaganda. We will continue to work relentlessly to bring all our hostages home and achieve all of Israel’s war objectives,” the statement concludes.
The Horn family, authorizing the publication of the video, said in a statement: “It breaks our heart to see Eitan in this difficult situation, saying goodbye to his brother Yair, who is being freed while Eitan remains held in Hamas’s hell for 512 days now.”
It continues, “You can see the despair and fear in Eitan’s eyes. Since Yair returned to us, he hasn’t stopped thinking about and working for Eitan, and all the other hostages he met in captivity who are still there. We demand from the decision-makers: Look Eitan in the eyes. Don’t end the agreement that has already brought dozens of hostages back to us. They are running out of time! Bring everyone home, now, in all at once.”
At least three other hostages are seen in captivity with Eitan and Yair Horn, two of whom have their faces blurred.
The third abductee whose face is visible, American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, was released on the same day that Yair was handed over to Israel, along with Alexander (“Sasha”) Troufanov, 29, a dual Russian-Israel citizen who had been held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization that operates in Gaza.
All three men were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist assault on the community, which was among the hardest hit. One in every four residents was killed or kidnapped.
Image: Eitan Horn, 38. Credit: Courtesy of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
