Girl hostages beg for help in Gaza video
Propaganda film shown as UN court backs Israel’s right to fight
A disturbing propaganda video released by Hamas features two teenage hostages whose plight was first told by the Mail.
in the horrifying clip, daniela gilboa and Karina Ariev, both 19, are filmed begging to be rescued and returned to their families in israel.
it is the first time the girls have been seen alive since they were violently kidnapped by terrorists on October 7.
Pictures of their bloodied and bruised faces, published in the
‘I am afraid for my life’
daily Mail earlier this month, have become a symbol of the campaign demanding the release of all remaining hostages.
under the haunting headline ‘don’t Forget them’ the article showed devastating images of gilboa, Ariev, Agam berger, 19, and Liri Albag, 18, taken hours after they were captured by Hamas.
the video of daniela and Karina came hours after the international Court of Justice affirmed israel’s right to continue its war against Hamas. its judges were responding to a claim by south Africa that israel was committing genocide in gaza. the court, which is the primary judicial body of the united nations, called for the ‘immediate’ release of hostages held by Hamas – but also for israel to take steps toward preventing genocidal acts and widespread destruction.
However, it did not order the country to cease military action in gaza entirely.
Prime minister benjamin netanyahu responded to the ruling by vowing israel would ‘defend ourselves and our citizens while adhering to international law’.
in the video of the two teenagers, which also features a third hostage, veterinary nurse doron steinbrecher, 30, Hamas warns that time is running out.
in the five-minute clip, allegedly filmed on January 21, the women are forced to blame israel for the war. speaking to the camera, daniela states: ‘i have spent 107 days in Hamas captivity and i don’t know if and when i can go back home.
‘i am subjected to bombing and fire 24 hours a day. i am afraid for my life. to my dear family… i am asking you to do all you can to get me home alive.’
Last week daniela’s parents met rishi sunak and Foreign secretary david Cameron. After handing Lord Cameron a copy of the Mail’s story, they urged the UK government to double its efforts to save the girls in case they were being raped or were pregnant.
Lord Cameron vowed to do ‘everything’ he could to ensure Daniela’s safe return.
On Thursday, he flew to Qatar and urged regional leaders to secure the release of hostages.
The Mail’s article captured the world’s attention. It was brandished by Gilad erdan, the permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations, at a meeting of the body. There are still 136 hostages being held in Gaza – including 19 female hostages and two British-Israeli hostages. At least 25 have already been executed in captivity.
TODAY is Holocaust Memorial Day, when the world is asked to remember and reflect on the systematic and mechanised slaughter of six million Jews.
The Nazi genocide was not the only example of man’s inhumanity to man, but it was the most comprehensive – a grotesque attempt to wipe an entire people from the face of the earth.
How bitterly ironic then, that on the eve of this day of remembrance, the state of Israel should face its own accusations of ethnic ‘cleansing’.
At the International Court of Justice in the Hague, a bench of elderly jurists and academics were asked to rule on whether Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. It was a stitch-up from the start.
Bizarrely, the case was brought by South Africa, which has no business in Gaza and might be better addressing human rights breaches and corruption in its own country than pointing the finger elsewhere.
Yet the court happily endorsed South Africa’s right to instigate the action, declaring that the charge of genocide was ‘plausible’ and must be investigated.
It stopped short of ordering an immediate cessation of military action and called on Hamas terrorists unconditionally to release all hostages.
In every other respect, however, this was a show trial with Israel firmly in the dock. As an organ of the resolutely pro-Palestinian United Nations, the ICJ was never likely to support Israel. And so, it proved.
The slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, some raped and mutilated by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists on October 7, began this conflagration. Yet this bestial outrage merited only the briefest of mentions.
Equally, there was no recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself against a truly genocidal enemy whose central mission is the destruction of the Jewish state.
Yes, the campaign of retribution against Hamas has been brutal and arguably too indiscriminate. Both the UK and US have asked Israel to do more to limit civilian casualties.
But Israel sees itself as engaged in an existential struggle. Without the elimination of Hamas, there can be no peace and no hope of the viable two-state solution the UN claims to want.
Ultimately it is Hamas and their Iranian backers who bear responsibility for the carnage. That the ICJ judges can’t see this shows they are not honest brokers.
The ICJ is not the only international court riding roughshod over the wishes and interests of democratic nation states. The European Court of Justice did it routinely when we were in the EU and the European Court of Human Rights still does.
They cleave to the idea that they are upholding international law but in fact they too often sit above it, handing down deeply politicised and often biased judgments.
The ECHR hates Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan, as its Irish president made clear this week. From her ivory tower in Strasbourg, Siofra O’Leary lectured the UK on its supposed obligation to abide by its ‘pyjama injunctions’ blocking the deportations of cross-Channel migrants to Rwanda for assessment of their asylum claims.
We can therefore be sure the ECHR will do all it can to sabotage the Rwanda scheme. Mr Sunak should have the courage to ignore its protestations.
Why should he bow to a foreign court over legislation passed by a large majority through our own Parliament? Unlike him, none of these international judges have been elected by real people.
Such bodies cannot be allowed to usurp the rights of sovereign nations to make their own laws – or, in the case of Israelis, to defend themselves against enemies who seek to destroy them.
On this Holocaust Memorial Day, we should all mark the words of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Never again!’