Joshua Loitu Mollel
Family of Tanzanian Man Murdered on October 7 Sues Israel Over Publication of Hamas Footage
Joshua Loitu Mollel was murdered on October 7th and taken hostage in Gaza. His family says the video of his murder was published unblurred, without their permission, and before they had confirmed that he was really dead.
The family of Joshua Loitu Mollel, a 21-year-old agricultural intern from Tanzania who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, has filed suit against the State of Israel for publishing video of his killing without their permission, according to a report in Haaretz.
The footage, taken from Hamas bodycams, was first uploaded on December 17, 2023, by an unknown Telegram account. Shortly afterward, the Foreign Ministry’s X account reposted the video. According to the lawsuit, the clip was published publicly before the family had seen it and before they had been formally informed of its contents.
The family is demanding 270,000 shekels in damages. They are represented by Justice Ministry legal aid lawyers Galit Lobitsky and Michal Pomerantz.
Mollel arrived in Israel as an agricultural intern at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, only nineteen days before the massacre. Footage reviewed by investigators shows him bloodied but alive as armed terrorists drag him away while shouting at him. A later clip shows Hamas gunmen firing repeatedly at his body. His remains were taken to Gaza and were returned last month as part of the ceasefire and hostage arrangement.
According to the report, Israeli officials notified Mollel’s father in a Zoom call on December 13, 2023, that his son had been murdered. The father reportedly did not believe the news and initially chose not to tell the rest of the family. Officials invited him to Israel to review classified material. Four days later, the videos surfaced online.
The lawsuit states that the Foreign Ministry reposted the footage without blurring Mollel’s face, even though the ministry had blurred the faces of other victims in similar clips. The family argues that the ministry’s English-language caption, which described the killing in graphic terms, compounded the trauma. The suit includes the father’s account of struggling to keep relatives, including Mollel’s mother and brother, from encountering the video.
The video reportedly garnered 140,000 views before officials removed it several days later. Advocacy groups working with the family, including a migrants’ center and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, requested that Israeli diplomats intervene to have the post deleted.
In a response to an earlier notice of claim, the government argued that the publication served Israel’s informational efforts against Hamas and noted that other massacre footage had also been released. The Foreign Ministry told Haaretz it acts with sensitivity toward victims’ families and had worked to assist the Mollel family, but could not comment further due to the ongoing legal process.