The presence of large numbers of prisoners in Gaza, the vast majority of whom are civilians, increases the risks of a possible Israeli invasion
October 12, 2023 at 10:54 am EDT
Visual evidence shows that people were captured from Israeli towns and military posts around Gaza during the fighting that began on October 7. (The Washington Post)
Palestinian fighters kidnapped at least 64 prisoners into the Gaza Strip during the unprecedented assault on Israel that began Saturday morning, according to a review of visual evidence by The Washington Post.
Among them were 49 people who appeared to be civilians – nine of them children – and 11 who appeared to be members of the Israeli military, The Post’s review said. In four cases it could not be determined whether the prisoner was a civilian or a soldier.
Neither the Israeli government nor Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and launched Saturday’s attack, have said exactly how many people are being held in Gaza, but the issue has shaken families in Israel and abroad and plays a major role, as Israel prepares for a possible invasion.
In total, the Post found visual evidence that Palestinian fighters captured at least 106 people during the raid. In addition to those apparently taken to Gaza, 26 prisoners were held in locations that could not be verified and 16 were seen only in Israel. Hamas said it was holding “tens” of people. Israeli authorities said they estimated that Palestinian militants had taken between 100 and 150 people hostage.
The actual number of people and soldiers taken hostage by Palestinian fighters in Gaza is almost certain higher than those seen in the videos and images reviewed by The Post. Neither Hamas nor the Israeli military immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Post reviewed hundreds of videos and images posted on social media since the fighting began. To assess whether prisoners were brought to Gaza, the Post geolocated some Images that showed these individuals or, more generally, relied on visual indicators such as visible surroundings or the fact that they were being transported by armed Palestinian fighters celebrating their capture. In many cases, family members of detainees confirmed that they were taken to Gaza.
In several cases, visual evidence did not provide enough information to determine whether a prisoner was taken to Gaza, and other abductions reported in the media were not captured on video or photographs at all.
Videos reviewed by The Post show a mother and her children displaced in a truck, foreign workers held in an underground room and young people swept away from a nighttime rave in the desert that began shortly after sunrise was attacked on Saturday. In one case, militants used a woman’s phone to livestream her abduction, her husband, and her three children from their home on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The Post viewed the livestream and matched the clothing worn by one of the daughters to images later posted by pro-Hamas Telegram reports that captured the same girl in an unidentified room.
The images show the abduction of prisoners at numerous locations in an area more than 20 miles wide, from the village of Nir Oz in the south to the main Erez border crossing in the north, reflecting the broad scope of Hamas’s incursion across almost the entire Gaza border in South of Israel.
The question of how many people are being held by Hamas, allied armed groups and others in Gaza will be crucial in the coming days. Not since the war between Israel and its Arab neighbors in 1973 have so many Israeli civilians or soldiers been held captive. On Monday, Hamas threatened to execute a hostage for any Israeli airstrike that targets Palestinians in their homes “without warning.” The Israeli military continues to bomb sites across the Gaza Strip as it prepares for a possible invasion that could involve hostages in a devastating ground war. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and 5,339 injured in the airstrike so far.
Hamas itself has lost contact with some of its fighters who were holding prisoners, and Gaza civilians have also taken hostages themselves, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a senior Hamas official and Egyptian officials. The “total siege” of the Gaza Strip declared by Israeli officials, if continued, will also cause conditions in the Gaza Strip to rapidly deteriorate.
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Some of the videos reviewed by The Post show Palestinian fighters taking prisoners from several small towns just miles from the Gaza border, some of which have been the site of mass killings of civilians.
In one high-profile case, a video shows a man carrying a child down a street surrounded by armed Palestinian fighters.
A video posted on Telegram on October 8 shows a child, identified as 12-year-old Erez Kalderon, being taken hostage in Nir Oz, a town near Gaza. (Video: Twitter)
The Post spoke with Gaya Kalderon, a 21-year-old woman from southern Israel, who said the boy in the video was her younger brother, 12-year-old Erez. The video was filmed near her father’s home in the Nir Oz kibbutz, she said. The Post independently confirmed the location in the video.
Kalderon’s brother hid in the family’s safe room during the attack, along with her father, sister, cousin and grandmother, she said. They’re all missing.
Another widely shared video showed an elderly woman being driven through Gaza in a golf cart by armed fighters as women could be heard shouting greetings to her.
The video, posted on Telegram on October 7, shows an elderly Israeli woman being driven through the Gaza Strip in a golf cart. (Video: Telegram)
Adva Adar, who lives in Israel, told The Post that the woman was her 85-year-old grandmother Yafa, who was ill and taking medication, including for pain management.
“We don’t know how long she can go without her medication,” Adar said.
Although around three-quarters of the people Palestinian fighters brought into Gaza appeared to be civilians, fighters also captured soldiers in their attacks on military posts.
A dawn attack on the Erez crossing in northern Gaza was captured on video and posted on Hamas’ official Telegram account. It shows Palestinian fighters capturing three men believed to be Israeli soldiers.
Video posted on a Hamas Telegram channel on October 8 shows Israeli soldiers being captured at gunpoint at the Erez border crossing. (Video: Telegram)
A still image of the attack shows them dragging one of the captured men through a gap in the concrete wall separating Israel and Gaza.
On Monday morning, a Telegram account that supports Hamas’s military wing and often disseminates information about its actions posted the name, picture and military identification number of one of the three men, saying he had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for the release of all captured civilians. The organization’s human rights officer condemned the kidnappings and said taking hostages was prohibited under international law.
Palestinian fighters also brought at least eight bodies back to Gaza, including apparently at least six soldiers killed, according to the Post’s analysis. In the past, the bodies of Israeli soldiers have been part of prisoner exchange negotiations between the two sides.
In the conflict’s last major prisoner swap in 2011, Hamas exchanged Gilad Shalit, a sergeant captured in an attack on an Israeli post five years earlier, for around 1,000 imprisoned Palestinians. During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, Hamas seized the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in an attack on their armored personnel carrier and continues to preserve their remains to this day.
Steve Hendrix and Loveday Morris in Jerusalem, Imogen Piper in London and Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this report.