Who is Noa Marciano? Hamas video confirms death of Israeli hostage

Hamas has released video footage of Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservist who was among the hostages taken by the militants in Gaza, showing her speaking while in captivity before being shown images of his dead body. .

The Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed that Marciano had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on November 9. The graphic images appear to show a laceration to the head and one of the legs broken at the ankle.

In a statement, the IDF identified Marciano as the woman in the video and said it had sent officers to speak with her family after it was released.

“Our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the terrorist organization Hamas,” he said. “We are working with all the means, intelligence and operational, in order to return home the abductees.”

The statement added: “The terrorist organization Hamas continues to exploit psychological terrorism and acts inhumanely, through videos and photos of hostages, as it did in the past.”

An IDF spokesman did not respond to questions about Hamas claims that Marciano had been killed in an airstrike when he was approached. Newsweek on Tuesday.

Marciano was one of the estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants during their attack in various locations in Israel on October 7, where around 1,400 Israelis, including many civilians, were also killed, according to the Associated Press.

Since then, Israeli forces have carried out an intense campaign of airstrikes in Gaza and subsequent land invasion of the Palestinian territory, with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas. The AP quotes Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry as saying more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in the violence.

In the clip released by Hamas, Marciano identifies herself and gives her ID number, saying that at the time it had been four days since she was kidnapped, dating the part of the video where she lives to October 11. He also points out that he is alive. in Modi’in, a small town between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and is of Moroccan origin.

According to a translation of the video, Marciano says he is with other hostages and points out that there are airstrikes near them. He seems to be reading some points and it is not clear if his remarks were given to him.

According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretzMarciano had been serving in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps of the IDF’s 414th Regiment and had been at a surveillance post near Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7.

The community is near the border with Gaza and was one of the sites attacked by the militants, with more than a dozen killed and others taken there. Two of the hostages who had been released so far: mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan.they were taken from the kibbutz.

Marciano’s mother, Adi, previously told Israeli media that she had last spoken to her daughter by phone in the early morning hours of October 7.

“He told me he was in a protected space and there had been an infiltration,” his mother said in an interview. “She said she had to end the call. I didn’t hear any gunshots or screams. Half an hour later, I texted her, but she didn’t answer.”

Marciano was previously seen in an image released by Hamas after the attack on Israel, tied together with three other hostages.

Just a day before posting the video, his grandmother Bella had spoken about comforting the rest of her family and expressed hope for Marciano’s return.

“I’m at their house all day, keeping busy and trying to calm them down and calm myself down and get into a routine, but it’s not working — we’re all feeling really bad,” Bella told Ynet News. “I try to calm them down and tell them he’ll be back in a few days.”

Update 11/14/23, 9:59 am ET: This article was updated to include a response from an IDF spokesperson.