For the first time since the October 7 massacre, footage has been released showing the abduction of Rimon Kirsht and Yagev Buchshtab from their home in Kibbutz Nirim. The video, published today (Monday), shows the couple being forcibly led away by Hamas terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Nirim to the Gaza Strip. Throughout the ordeal, the two can be seen refusing to let go of each other's hands, even as they are being abducted.
Rimon was released as part of the first hostage deal in November 2023 after spending 53 days in captivity. Yagev remained in Hamas captivity and was later murdered in Khan Younis. His body was recovered by IDF forces in August 2024.
Alongside the release of the footage, Rimon gave her first in-depth interview, in which she spoke publicly for the first time about her experience in captivity. She described how she insisted on staying with Yagev even when the terrorists tried to separate them, how she attempted to gather information about her captors in the hope that, if she survived, she could provide intelligence to Israel, and how she coped with violence, hunger, and the harsh conditions of captivity.
In the interview with Walla, Rimon said that while in captivity she tried to protect Yagev, even at the risk of being harmed herself. According to her account, in one incident, when one of the terrorists approached him, she stabbed the man in the hand with a fork she had hidden.
"I stabbed him in the palm of his hand-I drove the fork into it," she recalled.
She said the terrorists then beat her, but that she continued to place herself between them and Yagev in an effort to protect him from further harm.