Israelis Receive Unknown Calls with Recordings of Hostages Begging for Help

Several Israeli citizens took to social media, reporting they received calls from unknown numbers overnight with recorded messages of hostages pleading to be released from captivity in Gaza.

The posts describing the chilling accounts began circulating on social media from late Friday night and continued into Saturday morning.

According to social media users, these recordings featured the voices of hostages who were filmed by Hamas for propaganda videos. The messages also had sounds of sirens and explosions in the background.

Israel Investigates the Calls

The National Cyber Directorate of Israel is now investigating the calls, which came from numbers including 0747375311, 0799444000 and 0722604986. It has also advised Israeli citizens to block the numbers for safety and security.

The calls are “attempts to create panic among the public," it said.

Details of the Calls

The Jerusalem Post carried a woman's post which is being shared widely. In it, the woman stated, "Girls, please, this is urgent, I’m panicking! I received a call at 1:00 AM from an Israeli number. There were loud bombings and sirens, and a recording of what seemed to be a hostage begging us to rescue him, saying their time is running out and asking for help from the people of Israel. It was definitely a recorded message — not a real-time hostage plea — but I want to report it to the police. How do I do that?"

"I called the police emergency line (100), and they said they’ve received many similar reports, all starting around the same time. They’re still not sure what’s going on. I hope it’s resolved soon," the update on her post read, as quoted in The Jerusalem Post.

Other social media users have also reported about getting similar calls. 

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