Who Is Noa Marciano? Hamas Video Confirms Israeli Hostage Death

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

The Al Qassam Brigade, the military wing of Hamas, claimed that Marciano had been killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza on November 9. The graphic images appear to show a laceration to her head and one of her 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 following its release.

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

The statement added: "The Hamas terrorist organization continues to exploit psychological terrorism and act inhumanely, through videos and photos of the hostages, as done in the past."

A spokesperson for the IDF did not respond to questions about Hamas' claims that Marciano had been killed in an air strike when approached by Newsweek on Tuesday.

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

Since then, Israeli forces have conducted an intensive campaign of air strikes on Gaza and a subsequent ground invasion of the Palestinian territory, with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas. The AP cites the Hamas-run Gaza 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 abducted—dating the part of the video where she is alive to October 11. She also notes she lives in Modi'in, a small city between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and is of Moroccan descent.

According to a translation of the video, Marciano says that she is with other hostages and notes that there are air strikes occurring close to them. She appears to be reading at points and it is unclear if her remarks were given to her.

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

The community sits near the border with Gaza and was one of the locations attacked by militants, with over a dozen killed and others taken captive there. Two of the hostages to have so far been released—mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan—were taken from the kibbutz.

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

"She told me she was in a protected space and that there had been an infiltration," her mother said in an interview. "She said that she had to end the call. I didn't hear shots or screams. Half an hour later, I sent her a message, but she didn't reply."

Marciano was previously seen in an image released by Hamas in the initial aftermath of the attack on Israel, bound alongside three other hostages.

Just a day before the video was released, her grandmother Bella had spoken of 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 and myself down and follow a routine, but it's not working; we all feel very bad," Bella told Ynet News. "I try to calm them and tell them that she'll be back in a few days."

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