TEL AVIV (Reuters) – O Hamas He released a video on Friday of two Israeli hostages seized at a music festival in Israel in October 2023, and one of them said he was being kept in the city of Gaza, where the Israeli armed forces launched a great offensive to eliminate the militant group.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel are two of the 48 people who are still being kept by Hamas In Gaza, and it is believed that 20 are still alive.
Initially, the Hamas He took 251 hostages to the enclave after his transfronical attack on the southern communities of Israel, which, according to Israel, killed 1,200 people, triggering the war. Since then, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health authorities, with much of the densely populated enclave in ruins and their residents facing a humanitarian crisis.
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The video was edited and showed Gilboa-Dalal with exhausted appearance talking for about three and a half minutes. He is seen in a car in part of the video dated August 28. Reuters could not determine independently when the video was recorded.
He says he is being kept in the city of Gaza along with several other hostages and is afraid of being killed by Israel’s offensive in the city.
Israel launched his attack on the city of Gaza on August 10, attacking what the government calls the last bastion of Hamas. An Israeli military spokesman said on Thursday that now the country controls about 40% of the city, where about one million people lived before the war.
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Residents of the city said Israel bombed several buildings on Friday. The Ministry of Health of Gaza reported that 30 Palestinians were killed by the military in Gaza, including 20 in the city of Gaza.
Gilboa-Dalal seems to be in the back seat of a car being driven. When the car goes through buildings, it identifies one of them as belonging to the Red Cross. THE Hamas He refused to allow the Red Cross to see the hostages.
At one point, Ohel, 24, is also seen.
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Dictated speech
Gilboa-Dalal was seen in a video in February being forced to see other hostages being released under a temporary ceasefire. Hostages that were filmed in similar videos and since then were released, they said that their captors dictated to them what they should say.
A Human Rights Watch condenou o Hamas and another militant group in Gaza for release hostage videos, calling them inhuman treatment that is equivalent to a war crime. Israeli authorities described the videos as a psychological war.
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Tens of thousands of Israelis have been conducting weekly demonstrations asking for the end of the war to ensure the release of the remaining hostages.
O Hamas He was decimated by the Israeli War in Gaza, with Israeli authorities estimating that at least 20,000 militants were killed. But after almost two years of war, many Israelis doubts that the military can get more in Gaza.
Still, 60,000 reservists were summoned to support the operation and the service of another 20,000 was extended.
