Hamas releases video of hostages to ‘send message’ to Netanyahu
Hamas has released a video of three Israeli hostages in Gaza in an apparent effort to pressure the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The group’s military wing disseminated the clip via social media on Monday as Israel Defence Forces (IDF) continued to bomb the enclave and advanced on Gaza City.
The women who appeared in the video were likely to have done so under duress. The Geneva conventions prohibit the taking of hostages.
The video description provided by Hamas said: “A number of Zionist prisoners held by Al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government.”
Netanyahu condemned the video as “cruel psychological propaganda”. His office named the women as Daniel Aloni, Rimon Kirsht and Elena Trupanov. “I embrace you,” said the prime minister. “Our hearts are with you and the other captives.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an umbrella group for families of abductees, said the three women’s relatives would give a press conference in Tel Aviv later on Monday.
The 76-second clip showed the women seated together in plastic chairs in front of a tiled wall, facing the camera. They bore no visible signs of injury.
Only the one in the centre spoke. Gazing directly at the camera, she said they had been in captivity for 23 days, suggesting the video was filmed on Sunday or Monday, just over three weeks since Hamas militants stormed southern Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people and abducting more than 220.
Addressing Netanyahu directly, she accused the Israeli government of leaving her community defenceless during the Hamas attack. “We are getting punished for your political, national neglect,” she said. “Nobody came. Nobody heard us.”
She said there was supposed to be a ceasefire. “We are innocent citizens. Citizens who pay taxes to the state of Israel. You want to kill us all. You want to kill us all using the IDF.” She pleaded for an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. “Let their citizens go, let their prisoners go. Free us. Free all of us. Let us return to our families now!” At the end she screamed “now” several times.
The other two remained largely silent. One avoided looking at the camera, the other cast sporadic glances at the camera.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an estimated 5,000 Palestinians incarcerated in Israel. Netanyahu has rejected an immediate swap and said the offensive in Gaza would pressure Hamas into making concessions.
The prime minister condemned the video and vowed to do everything possible to bring hostages homes. In a comment addressed to the three women, he said: “Our heart is with you.”
In a separate development, the family of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old Israeli-German whose fate became indelibly associated around the globe with the mass abductions, said she was dead, believed killed during the 7 October attack.