Videos: Freed Israeli woman captive confirms Hamas fighters protected Israeli women and children during Gaza conflict

Yasmine Osama Farag , Thursday 12 Oct 2023

Amid baseless Israeli and Western media claims Hamas fighters "beheaded Israeli babies," an Israeli woman who was captured and then released by Palestinian fighters during the Gaza conflict confirmed to Israeli media that her Hamas captors treated her with respect and protected the two little children with her during highly intense moments.

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Avital Aladjem speaks to Israeli media about her experience with Palestinian fighters.

 

The Israeli woman, Avital Aladjem, speaking while visibly shaken and in tears, narrated to an Israeli news anchor that her Palestinian captors provided her with decent clothes out of respect as they led her away.

Avital, a resident of Kibbutz Holit in the Gaza Envelope, who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties, said that the fighters signaled for her and the children in her company  - a boy and a girl -  to return home after they reached the Gaza Strip.

She added that as she walked back home she ran into a group of Hamas fighters and one of the fighters carried one of her children on his shoulder as she carried the other child in order to assist her part of the way.

Again, on her way back alone with her children, Avital said that upon running into more explosions she and her children hid behind a sand hill. 

At this moment, she added, another group of armed fighters passed her on their way back to Gaza but did not cause any harm to her and her children.

Avital's story confirmed the authenticity of a video - gone viral - released on Wednesday by Ezz Eddin Al-Qassam Brigades and broadcast by the Al-Aqsa TV, which attacked Israeli military targets and settlements in the envelope of Gaza since Saturday, depicting Palestinian fighters releasing detained Israeli women and children.

The video showed a woman wearing a blue shirt with two children, accompanied by three members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, walking away from an area laden with barbed wire.

The Ezz Eddin Al-Qassam Brigade also released a statement on Wednesday evening that they had released an Israeli woman with her children after holding them during the Gasa clashes.

"An Israeli settler and her children were released after being detained during the clashes," read the statement.

 
 
More videos refute Israeli lies
 

In another video interview, which also refutes Israeli claims of "barbaric Palestinian acts" and published by Israeli Channel 12, another Israeli woman, by the name of Rutam, stated that she informed Palestinian fighters who entered her home that she has two children and one of them replied to her: "I am a Muslim. Do not worry ... We will not attack any of you."

Smiling, Rutam said one of the Palestinian fighters asked her if he could have one of the bananas sitting on a table and asked if he could have one, to which she replied: "Yes, you can have one!"

Rutam concluded by saying that the fighters stayed in her house for two hours and then just left.

In a third video, which seems to be CCTV footage from an Israeli settlement location under Hamas attack, Palestinian fighters appear to be protecting Israeli women amid an exchange of gunfire amid mayhem.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden, who has declared Washington's unconditional support to Israel in its war on Gaza, peddled baseless Israeli claims that Hamas fighters "beheaded Israeli babies" during their campaign against Israel.

Since the start of Hamas's Al-Aqsa Flood operation on Saturday, Palestinian fighters have killed 1,200 Israelis, including more than 220 soldiers, and injured hundreds of Israelis.

Meanwhile, round-the-clock Israeli military airstrikes against Gaza, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, have left more than 1,400 killed, more than 6,000 injured, destroyed whole residential neighbourhoods including tens of homes demolished, and left more than a quarter million homeless.

Israel has cut off all food, water, and electricity to the Gaza Strip, leaving the Palestinian population on the verge of a total humanitarian disaster, on the back of a debilitating 16-year-old Israeli siege of the strip.

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