Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Ori Danino can be seen commemorating the occasion months before their murder
December 12, 2025 17:03
Startling footage has been released showing the group of hostages dubbed “The Beautiful Six” observing Chanukah while being held captive in Gaza’s tunnels.
The footage, released on Thursday night by the hostages’ families ahead of the first night of Chanukah on Sunday, shows Alex Lobanov, 33, Almog Sarusi, 27, Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Ori Danino, 25, some eight months before their execution by Hamas terrorists in August 2024.
Inside a tunnel complex in Gaza, the group recites the candle-light blessing in Hebrew together and sings the traditional song “Ma’oz Tzur” (“Rock of Ages”) at some point between December 7 and December 15 2023, the period during which the Jewish festival of light fell that year.
Yerushalmi can be heard saying, “Make a wish, friends”, while another hostage urges fellow captives: “We need to ask for good things. It’s always good to ask for good things, to ask for miracles.”
One of the hostages remarks that the shamash candle that is used to light the other candles, is “problematic” after its flame dims. Another member of the group says it happened because of a lack of oxygen.
The Chanukah footage was taken after the captives spent approximately 80 days in captivity and eight months before they were murdered by their captors.
It was recovered about three months ago during an IDF raid on the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, where former Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar had been hiding before he was killed by Israeli forces in May.
While the footage was filmed by Hamas for propaganda purposes, the material is unlike other clips published during the war – which usually featured captives’ reading statements written by their captors – and provides a unique glimpse into the hostages’ time in captivity.
Recovered Israeli military footage shows six hostages killed in Gaza lighting Hanukkah candles
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 11, 2025
Israeli forces released footage recovered during operations in the Gaza Strip showing the six Israeli hostages murdered by their captors in August 2024. The video, filmed in a tunnel,… pic.twitter.com/mnGsErPjzP
The footage was shown to the bereaved families over a month ago, with several hours’ worth of video believed to have been recovered.
In another clip, Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli citizen who lost his left hand in a grenade blast on October 7, compared the hostages’ plight to that of Jews living in Nazi Germany.
“There’s that picture of the [menorah] with a Nazi flag above it,” he is heard saying.
According to Israeli intelligence, the six hostages – who were all kidnapped alive on October 7 – were held for most of their captivity in the same tunnel complex in Rafah, in the southernmost part of the strip, where they were murdered in August 2024 as the IDF closed in on their location.
Their bodies were recovered on August 31. Autopsies revealed they had all been shot multiple times at close range just days before their discovery, Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed last year.
The announcement of their deaths was one of the most shocking and tragic days for the Jewish state, which had closely followed – and become so emotionally invested – in the fate of every Gaza hostage since the war began.
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