Hamas releases new video of Israeli hostages
Hamas has marked the 100th day of the conflict in Gaza by releasing a clip showing three Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian armed group since its incursion into Israel on October 7.
In the 37-second-long video, which was published on social media on Sunday, the captives identified themselves as Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38, and asked the Israeli authorities to facilitate their release.
The undated footage ended with two captions in Arabic, Hebrew and English. One of them read: “Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate,” and the other: “Your government is lying.”
A clip of Argamani’s abduction at the Supernova music festival was one of the first to appear online on the day of the attack on Israel by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people were killed and some 240 taken hostage.
On Sunday, Noa’s mother Liora Argamani, who is in advanced stages of cancer and uses a wheelchair, spoke in front of 120,000 people at a rally in support of the hostages in Tel Aviv. “Noa has been held captive by Hamas for 100 days, and I don’t understand how it can be, how she is still there. I hope I will be able to see her before my last day,” she said.
Sharabi and Svirsky were also taken by gunmen on October 7 from the Be’eri kibbutz, located near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.
Hamas released around a half of its hostages during the week-long truce in November. According to the Israeli authorities, it currently holds 132 people, while 25 captives have been killed in the fighting.
On Sunday, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida again warned that continued attacks on Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces are putting the lives of Israeli captives in danger.
“The fate of many of the enemy’s hostages and detainees has become unknown in recent weeks… Most likely, many of them were killed recently, the rest are in great danger every hour and the enemy’s leadership and army bear full responsibility,” Obeida stressed.
Netanyahu insisted on Saturday that the military operation in Gaza would continue until it achieves its “goals of eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel.”
The latest figures from Gaza’s health ministry suggest that 23,938 people have been killed and 60,582 injured in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave over past 100 days.
