The households of three IDF troopers who had been attacked and brought hostage from a tank stationed on the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, have obtained beforehand unseen footage of their family members that was recorded simply days earlier than the assault.
Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, Sgt. Oz Daniel and Cpt. Omer Neutra had been stationed on the so-called “White Home” IDF publish between Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim on the morning of October 7, together with the fourth member of their tank crew, Sgt. Shaked Dahan.
Their tank was attacked by Hamas terrorists with RPG hearth and explosive gadgets. Dahan, Daniel and Neutra had been all killed within the assault, and their our bodies had been taken to Gaza, the place they’re nonetheless held. Cohen was kidnapped alive, and a returning hostage instructed his household again in February that he had seen him in Gaza some eight months prior, although in poor bodily and psychological form.
Now-infamous footage from the assault confirmed Palestinians in civilian clothes standing on and round their tank whereas it was wreathed in smoke and flames, and the troopers being dragged out by Hamas terrorists.
However the households have now obtained happier footage by which they will keep in mind their family members, recorded exterior the troopers’ publish simply days earlier than October 7 by Tsipora Halfon, the volunteer chair of the Affiliation for the Welfare of Israeli Troopers (AWIS), who visited the bottom to distribute meals.
Within the video, a bunch of troopers will be seen mingling with one another and speaking to Halfon as she encourages them to pick out drinks from a cooler and pick snacks from the trunk of her automotive.
שבוע לפני חטיפתם: תיעוד חדש של לוחמי השריון החטופים
בתיעוד שפורסם נראים הלוחמים עומר נאוטרה, עוז דניאל ונמרוד כהן, שבוע לפני אירועי 7 באוקטובר. עומר נאוטרה ועוז דניאל נפלו ומוגדרים חללים חטופים, נמרוד כהן חי ומוחזק בידי חמאסhttps://t.co/3xqFixqn2o
(צילום: ציפורה חלפון) pic.twitter.com/t8mONBiGBT
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Loud music performs within the background, and the ambiance seems relaxed, with among the troopers carrying sports activities garments fairly than uniforms.
Neutra will be seen towards the beginning of the video, hanging again barely together with Cohen and Daniel till Halfon notices them and encourages them to cease “being shy” and take snacks.
At a later level, the digicam pans to Cohen, who’s holding two packets of chips and doesn’t appear to appreciate he’s being filmed.
Halfon then turns to Daniel, who’s standing behind her with a number of snacks and a big bottle of soda balanced in his arms, and asks if she will be able to take {a photograph} with “this good-looking man,” who obligingly leans in, grinning extensively.
“Take care of your self!” Halfon calls to him as she walks away.
Images from that day lay within the depths of Halfon’s Fb web page, after she uploaded them in April 2024 to mark the primary Passover vacation for the reason that October 7 onslaught, which fell on the Jewish vacation of Simhat Torah.
On the time, Neutra was nonetheless believed to be alive, and the IDF would solely affirm his dying some eight months later.
Passover, she had written, “symbolizes blossoming and renewal, spring and development. There isn’t a air and no ambiance. There isn’t a spring, and no blossoming and no development.”
Palestinians celebrating, close to a destroyed Israeli tank on the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP/Hassan Eslaiah)
The footage went unnoticed for greater than a 12 months, till Daniel’s father, Amir, stumbled throughout a photograph of Halfon together with his grinning son. He contacted the AWIS chair, who then despatched him all of the footage she had from that day, together with the video, and it was shared with the households of the opposite troopers.
“It’s very, very shifting, particularly the movies, and Oz, like Oz, stood out,” he instructed Channel 12.
“He was modest and shy, he didn’t really feel comfy taking issues from Tsipora’s automotive,” he mentioned. “He stood behind her with a shy half-smile… it was like seeing him actually alive.”
“It introduced me to tears,” his mom, Merav, instructed the Kan public broadcaster, saying new footage of Oz “has turn into one thing empowering and shifting.”
Cohen’s mom, Viki, instructed Kan: “I’m moved to tears to see Nimrod. I miss him a lot.”
