The families of three IDF soldiers who were attacked and taken hostage from a tank stationed on the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, have received previously unseen footage of their loved ones that was recorded just days before the attack.
Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, Sgt. Oz Daniel and Cpt. Omer Neutra were stationed at the so-called “White House” IDF post between Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim on the morning of October 7, along with the fourth member of their tank crew, Sgt. Shaked Dahan.
Their tank was attacked by Hamas terrorists with RPG fire and explosive devices. Dahan, Daniel and Neutra were all killed in the attack, and their bodies were taken to Gaza, where they are still held. Cohen was abducted alive, and a returning hostage told his family back in February that he had seen him in Gaza some eight months prior, though in poor physical and mental shape.
Now-infamous footage from the attack showed Palestinians in civilian clothing standing on and around their tank while it was wreathed in smoke and flames, and the soldiers being dragged out by Hamas terrorists.
But the families have now received happier footage by which they can remember their loved ones, recorded outside the soldiers’ post just days before October 7 by Tsipora Halfon, the volunteer chair of the Association for the Welfare of Israeli Soldiers (AWIS), who visited the base to distribute food.
In the video, a group of soldiers can be seen mingling with each other and talking to Halfon as she encourages them to select drinks from a cooler and pick out snacks from the trunk of her car.
שבוע לפני חטיפתם: תיעוד חדש של לוחמי השריון החטופים
בתיעוד שפורסם נראים הלוחמים עומר נאוטרה, עוז דניאל ונמרוד כהן, שבוע לפני אירועי 7 באוקטובר. עומר נאוטרה ועוז דניאל נפלו ומוגדרים חללים חטופים, נמרוד כהן חי ומוחזק בידי חמאסhttps://t.co/3xqFixqn2o
(צילום: ציפורה חלפון) pic.twitter.com/t8mONBiGBT
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Loud music plays in the background, and the atmosphere appears relaxed, with some of the soldiers wearing sports clothes rather than uniforms.
Neutra can be seen toward the start of the video, hanging back slightly along with Cohen and Daniel until Halfon notices them and encourages them to stop “being shy” and take snacks.
At a later point, the camera pans to Cohen, who is holding two packets of chips and doesn’t seem to realize he’s being filmed.
Halfon then turns to Daniel, who is standing behind her with several snacks and a large bottle of soda balanced in his arms, and asks if she can take a photograph with “this handsome man,” who obligingly leans in, grinning widely.
“Look after yourself!” Halfon calls to him as she walks away.
Photos from that day lay in the depths of Halfon’s Facebook page, after she uploaded them in April 2024 to mark the first Passover holiday since the October 7 onslaught, which fell on the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah.
At the time, Neutra was still believed to be alive, and the IDF would only confirm his death some eight months later.
Passover, she had written, “symbolizes blossoming and renewal, spring and growth. There is no air and no atmosphere. There is no spring, and no blossoming and no growth.”
Palestinians celebrating, near a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP/Hassan Eslaiah)
The footage went unnoticed for more than a year, until Daniel’s father, Amir, stumbled across a photo of Halfon with his grinning son. He contacted the AWIS chair, who then sent him all the footage she had from that day, including the video, and it was shared with the families of the other soldiers.
“It’s very, very moving, especially the videos, and Oz, like Oz, stood out,” he told Channel 12.
“He was modest and shy, he didn’t feel comfortable taking things from Tsipora’s car,” he said. “He stood behind her with a shy half-smile… it was like seeing him really alive.”
“It brought me to tears,” his mother, Merav, told the Kan public broadcaster, saying new footage of Oz “has become something empowering and moving.”
Cohen’s mother, Viki, told Kan: “I’m moved to tears to see Nimrod. I miss him so much.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
