GAZA: Hamas on Monday released a video it said showed three women from the more than 230 people Israel says were abducted by militants and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks.
The Palestinian Islamist group referred to the women in the 76-second video as “Zionist detainees” but it was not immediately possible to verify their identities.
Sitting on plastic chairs against a white tile wall, one of the women urges Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a prisoner exchange for the release of all captives.
Speaking in Hebrew, she becomes very agitated and starts shouting, almost screaming by the end, as the other two sitting either side of her remain silent.
The hostages were seized when hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into southern Israel and attacked kibbutz communities, towns and military bases. Their ages range between a few months and more than 80 years old.
Authorities believe they are being held in a giant network of underground tunnels built by Hamas in the besieged territory.
Israel says 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the worst attacks in Israel’s history, prompting its forces to unleash the current Gaza war.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,300 people, mainly civilians — and more than half women and children — have been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes.
The Israeli government made no immediate comment on the video.
Facing growing domestic pressure over the detainees, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday accused the militants of playing “psychological games” over the hostages’ fate.
On October 16, Hamas released a video showing Israeli-French hostage Mia Shem.