Players from Israel’s national soccer team embracing during the country’s match against
Colombia in the 2023 Under-20 World Cup in Argentina. Photo: Eva Cabrera/Ulan/Pool / Latin America News Agency.

The Israel Football Association (IFA) shared a heart-wrenching video on social media on Thursday recognizing the children kidnapped by Hamas and forcibly taken back to the Gaza Strip after the terrorist organization’s deadly rampage in Israel earlier this month, which also resulted in the death of 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The video shows Israel’s national men’s soccer team lined up and waiting to walk onto the field of Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, alongside another team lined up beside them. In soccer, there is a common practice of children holding the hands of soccer players and walking them out onto the field. In the clip, however, children are shown coming to hold the hands of Israel’s competitors, but the Israeli team has no children to walk them out — a reference to the fact that so many youngsters were victims of Hamas’ terrorism.

Text then appears on the screen that says, “Our children are missing. Hamas kidnapped them from their beds and homes. Help us #BringThemHomeNow.”

On Friday, the IFA released a behind-the-scenes video about the making of the tribute clip. It includes members of Israel’s national soccer team talking about the kidnapped children and calling for their immediate return.

 

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Roughly 30 children are being held captive by Hamas among the reported 222 hostages forcibly taken from Israel earlier this month. So far, only four hostages have returned home: Israel residents Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and her friend Nurit Cooper, 79, as well as Israeli-American US residents Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie Raanan, 17.

Taking civilians as hostages is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.