The distraught mother of a teenage hostage still held in Gaza has taken the agonising decision to release footage of her begging for her life. Daniela Gilboa, 19, was forced to film a sick propaganda video for Hamas where she is seen looking gaunt and afraid as she pleads: ‘I’m terrified for my life’. She implores Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to ‘get your act together’ and ‘bring us home alive’ – but nearly six months later Daniela remains in captivity. Today her heartbroken mother Orly Gilboa, 48, calls on world leaders and diplomats to watch the footage. She tells them: ‘My daughter expects you to do everything you can to bring her home.’
The footage was the first time Daniela had been seen alive since her kidnap from Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border where she was serving compulsory national service as an unarmed observer. ‘Where were you on October 7 when I was taken from my bed,’ she says, appearing as if she has not seen daylight for months. ‘Where are you now? Why do I, as a soldier who gave 100 per cent of myself to the country and served in such difficult conditions in the Gaza envelope, have to feel abandoned and discarded by you?’
The footage was released in January but there was a media blackout preventing publication of the video as it is a form of psychological warfare. Her mother has waved that request today saying the family ‘need Israel and the world to understand and remember there are still 120 hostages waiting to be rescued.’
Daniela starts the video introducing herself as a soldier from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, who was kidnapped alongside four other female observers on October 7. ‘I’ve been in Hamas captivity for 107 days now, and I don’t know when or if I’ll ever return home,’ she says, dressed in a fluffy grey hoody. ‘I’m under constant bombardment and gunfire 24 hours a day. I’m terrified for my life. At one point, your bombs nearly killed me.’ Addressing Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration, she adds: ‘Get your act together, my dear government, and start doing your job properly to bring us all home while we’re still alive. ‘I don’t need any food, money, clothes, or anything else – just bring us home alive.’
She finishes my directly addressing her parents, sister and boyfriend. ‘To my dear family, I miss you so much and love you – Mom, Dad, Nuni, and Roiko,’ she says. ‘Please stay strong and do everything you can to bring me home while I’m still alive.’
Some 170 days have now passed since the video was published and while there have been promising noises around negotiations in recent weeks a deal still appears elusive. Orly told the Daily Mail: ‘Now we are in a very critical time, and I am worried that people have forgotten about Daniela. ‘We need Israel and the world to remember again that there are 120 hostages waiting for us to rescue them. ‘This was a very hard thing for me to do. I cannot watch this footage, just hearing her upsets me so much. ‘But I am not important, all that is important is Daniela’s release to bring her back home – and I will do anything for her.’
While the teenager appears ‘strong and determined’ psychological assessments indicate that she is in a ‘poor mental state’ in the footage, her mother said. ‘She looks strong and assertive, but she’s not really. She’s acting there – I could see it in her eyes.’ Orly said she broke down when her daughter directly addressed her family. ‘In the beginning it was emotional, but I could listen to her. ‘But right at the moment she speaks to us, her parents, her sister, her boyfriend – at this moment I just cried. I couldn’t hear what she was saying after that. ‘It was very hard, hard to see her. All this happened 170 days ago. So right now I don’t even know how she is. We are very concerned.’
Orly also said that Daniela was very ‘accurate’ in her appeal to Mr Netanyahu. She said: ‘She is asking him to do everything to get her home. ‘As a soldier she gave 100 per cent to Israel, and so she expects Israel to give 100 per cent to bring her home. ‘ Daniela filmed the video alongside another observer, Karina Ariev, also 19, in January. The Daily Mail previously highlighted their plight alongside fellow hostages Agam Berger and Liri Albag, both 19, in a powerful article that was shown at the UN. Under the haunting headline ‘Don’t Forget Them’ the story showed devastating images of the four girls taken hours after they were captured by Hamas. It has become a symbol of the campaign demanding
