{"id":18920,"date":"2025-04-05T21:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/?p=18920"},"modified":"2025-04-05T23:33:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T20:33:20","slug":"first-sign-of-life-from-nova-hostages-bar-kupershtein-and-maxim-harkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/first-sign-of-life-from-nova-hostages-bar-kupershtein-and-maxim-harkin\/","title":{"rendered":"First Sign of Life from Nova Hostages Bar Kupershtein and Maxim Harkin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This marks the first confirmed sign of life from either of the young men since their kidnapping. Maxim Harkin\u2019s family confirmed they recognized his voice in the video. Per the families\u2019 request, the footage or any excerpts from it will only be published with their approval.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18922\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18922\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18922\" src=\"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bar-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bar-2.jpg 800w, https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bar-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bar-2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18922\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kupershtein\u2019s family at the Knesset | Photo: Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Kupershtein, an EMT, was working security at the festival<\/strong><br \/>\nBar Kupershtein, a trained medic with United Hatzalah, was working as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was abducted. Friends who viewed the footage say he appeared bound and lying on the floor, clearly shouting his own name. Bar, in his twenties, was the primary provider for his family after his father, Tal, became disabled in a serious car accident five years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Tal, still undergoing intensive rehabilitation, is fighting to walk and speak again while waiting for his son\u2019s return. The family\u2019s financial situation is dire, with their bank accounts frozen. Bar\u2019s younger siblings have taken the lead in public advocacy efforts to bring him home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m slowly coming home<br \/>\n<\/strong>Maxim Harkin, also taken from the Nova festival, had gone to the event spontaneously at a friend\u2019s invitation. A resident of Tirat Carmel, he lived with his single mother and 11-year-old brother and served as the family\u2019s main support. He is also the father of a three-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n<p>Moments before being taken, Maxim sent his mother a final message: \u201cMom, everything\u2019s okay. I\u2019m slowly coming home,\u201d followed by, \u201cMom, I love you.\u201d After that, all contact was lost.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, Hamas has escalated its psychological warfare by releasing propaganda videos of hostages it continues to hold, including Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Chaim Ohana. Those hostages, for instance, said their conditions in captivity had deteriorated since the fighting resumed in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a chilling new development, Hamas released the first footage of hostages Bar Kupershtein and Maxim Harkin on Saturday. The two have been held in Gaza since they were abducted from the Nova music festival in Re\u2019im on October 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":18921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276,6],"tags":[2896,1805,1705,2497,1514,2515],"class_list":["post-18920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-security","tag-hamas-hostages","tag-hamas-terror","tag-israeli-hostages","tag-nova-festival","tag-october-7","tag-terrorism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.7 (Yoast SEO v24.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>First Sign of Life from Nova Hostages Bar Kupershtein and Maxim Harkin - REGA news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Sign of Life from Nova Hostages Bar Kupershtein and Maxim Harkin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a chilling new development, Hamas released the first footage of hostages Bar Kupershtein and Maxim Harkin on Saturday. 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