Hamas releases video of three hostages
Hamas released a video last Sunday (14) showing three hostages it claims to be holding in Gaza. In 37 seconds they call on the Israeli government to stop attacks on the terrorist group. According to those abducted, the measure could guarantee their release.
The video no date Show the hostages: Noa Argamani, 26 years old, Yossi Sharabi, 53 years old, and Itai Svirsky, 38 years old. And it ends with the information that Hamas will announce its fate this Monday (15).
No target has been announced as of the publication of this report. It should be recalled that at the beginning of the war, Hamas threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for Israeli military attacks.
Israeli authorities generally refused to respond to Hamas's public statements about the hostages. They classify it as psychological warfare.
Hagar Mizrahi, a forensic officer in Israel's Ministry of Health, said on local television on December 31 that autopsies of the recovered dead hostages found the causes of death did not match Hamas's account that they died in airstrikes.
But Israel has also made clear that it is aware of the risks to the hostages of its offensive and is taking appropriate precautions.
“The military operation takes time. “It forces us to be precise and we adapt it to the threats and the hostages in the field,” said the armed forces’ chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, on Sunday.
Of the approximately 240 people held captive by Hamas, about half were released as part of a ceasefire in November. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza and that 25 of them have died in captivity.
The hostage crisis has confronted Israel with the worst attack in its history. Some family members of the hostages appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call another ceasefire or even call off the war.
He vowed to continue the fight until Hamas was destroyed, which he said would allow the hostages to be released.
Last month, Netanyahu said in parliament that he had asked Beijing to help free Argamani, whose mother Liora is Chinese. Liora Argamani suffers from a terminal illness and has asked to be reunited with her daughter before she dies.