New video suggests Israeli-Russian academic kidnapped in Iraq is still alive

An Iraqi television station posted a video Monday showing a kidnapped Israeli-Russian researcher for the first time since her disappearance seven months ago as she was taken off the streets of Baghdad.

The video, which claims to be from researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, was shown on Al Rabiaa TV, a channel with ties to Shia political parties. Later in the evening, three other broadcast channels showed the video, including the channel most closely linked to Kataib Hezbollah – an Iraqi Shiite militia with ties to Iran and the group was reportedly detaining.

Ms Tsurkov was kidnapped in late March after drinking coffee at a café in Baghdad. The first official revelation of her capture came this summer when the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said she was being held by Kataib Hezbollah.

When Netanyahu announced in July, the Iraqi government said it was investigating her capture. No group has claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.

Ms. Tsurkov went to Iraq in January to conduct academic research. According to the Iraqi government, she has both an Israeli and a Russian passport and entered the country using her Russian passport. Israel and Iraq do not maintain diplomatic relations; Iraq considers Israel a hostile state and has banned all contact with it.

In the video, Ms. Tsurkov, who speaks Hebrew throughout, is shown alone, sitting on a couch. She is dressed in black, her long hair is loose and she speaks softly but clearly. The video was shown with Arabic subtitles.

The New York Times was unable to authenticate the video, but its contents make it clear that it was taken after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

In it, Ms. Tsurkov speaks directly to the families of the Israelis being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza and tells them — making it clear that she is speaking to herself as a hostage — that if they want to see their relatives again, they need to stop the war.

“I ask the families of the hostages in Gaza to make continued efforts to stop the war against Gaza, for the sake of your sons and daughters,” she said. “This war stupidly waged by Netanyahu through his wife Sara and his son Yair will result in the hostages being killed. If you want your sons and daughters to return alive, the war must stop.”

In addition to the political message in the video, the reference to the Gaza war — which Ms. Tsurkov said she follows daily — suggests that her captors may have wanted the video to serve as proof to her family and the Israeli government that they are still alive .

The statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office this summer said: “We hold Iraq responsible for its security and well-being.”

Her kidnapping highlighted a problem Iraqi leaders are grappling with: Some military groups incorporated into Iraq’s security forces have stronger ties to Iran than to Iraq, and security officials say Kataib Hezbollah is the most prominent among them.

The video begins in the style of a confession, with Ms. Tsurkov saying she worked on behalf of Israeli intelligence and the CIA, something her family and friends deny.

The statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office said she was an academic who visited Iraq “on her own initiative in the context of working on her doctorate and academic research on behalf of Princeton University.”

Ms. Tsurkov was also a fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy at the time of her arrest. She spoke fluent Arabic and had researched relations between armed groups on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border. She had completed her mandatory military service in the Israeli army, and at that time she became more interested in the Arab world, studying first in Israel and then in the United States.

At the end of the video, Ms. Tsurkov speaks directly to her family, pleading with them to help secure her release. “I’m in a difficult situation,” she says.

“To my family, to my mother and father, Rina, Arkady, Emma, ​​Avital, David and my friends: I call on them to secure my release as soon as possible so that I can return to them.”

Falih Hassan reporting contributed.