FACT CHECK: Video Shows Israeli Hostage’s Sister, Not Mom

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, claims to show a freed Israeli hostage’s mom talking about how she learned “positive attitudes” in captivity.

Verdict: Misleading

The video shows the girl’s sister, as the mother was killed by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

Fact Check:

Hamas released 110 hostages it took during its Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, according to The Washington Post. More than 120 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, the outlet reported.

Social media users are sharing a video of a woman talking about one of the freed hostages, claiming it shows the hostage’s mother. One user wrote, “The mother of an Israeli girl who was recently released from #Gaza says her daughter has developed positive attitudes in the aftermath of her release, including offering those around her to eat first.”

This claim, however, is misleading. First, the woman in the video is not the mother of the freed hostage. The freed hostage, a nine-year-old Israeli girl named Emily Hand, was released by Hamas in late November, according to N12. The woman in the video is Natalie, Emily’s sister, not Emily’s mother.

Her stepmother, Narkis Hand, was murdered by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack, the Times of Israel reported. Narkis Hand helped raise Emily as Emily’s mother died when she was a toddler, the outlet reported.

Natalie Hand said that her sister “would tell more things” that she didn’t know. (RELATED: Claims Of Mass IDF Casualties Lack Evidence)

“We understand that suddenly in a year she will tell more things that I didn’t know. I don’t know how much she will feel that she can or cannot tell or how difficult it will be for her to tell. We don’t know how much she represses things,” she said in the interview with N12.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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