Video shows six hostages celebrating Chanukah underground before execution by Hamas

Newly released footage showing six Hamas hostages quietly marking Chanukah while held underground in Gaza has been made public, offering one of the most haunting glimpses yet into their lives before execution.

The material, recovered by Israeli forces from inside Hamas’s Rafah tunnel network, shows the captives improvising a candle and singing Ma’oz Tzur together in a narrow, suffocating chamber.

Those appearing in the clip are Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lubanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino – all abducted from southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

According to the IDF, the six were executed by Hamas in August 2024, and their bodies were later recovered after intelligence pinpointed the site of their captivity. Officials say the release of the footage underscores both the harsh conditions the hostages endured and Hamas’s systematic use of recordings as tools of psychological abuse.

Longer segments of the recovered material will air this week on Channel 12 investigative programme Uvda, marking the first public release of extended video captured inside the tunnels.

Its emergence coincides with renewed revelations about the treatment of other abducted Israelis.

The father of Noa Marciano, the 19-year-old soldier kidnapped from Nahal Oz and the only member of her female unit not to return alive, spoke publicly for the first time this week about a video he says shows his daughter being murdered in Gaza.

Avi Marciano said Noah can be seen “begging for her life” before a doctor in Shifa Hospital injected air into her veins. Her body was recovered near the complex in November 2023.

For many bereaved relatives, the Chanukah footage is a painful reminder of the hostages’ resilience – and of the cruelty they faced in their final months underground.