JERUSALEM: An Israeli kibbutz on Tuesday confirmed that two hostages whose deaths were announced by Hamas in a video had been “murdered” in Gaza after they were taken to the territory on October 7.
Kibbutz Beeri said in a statement it was informed that Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38, had been “murdered” and their bodies were in the custody of Hamas.
“We will demand they be returned along with the rest of the captives,” the community said.
Yossi Sharabi had moved to the kibbutz 30 years ago, following his brother Eli, it added.
Eli is still being held captive by Hamas after his wife and daughters were killed in the October 7 attack, according to the community.
Hamas on Monday released a video announcing the death of the two men.
The video showed a woman hostage named as Noa Argamani, 26, speaking under duress, revealing that the two men she was held captive with had been killed.
It was not clear when the video was taken.
In a statement released with Monday’s video, Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said the two were killed in “the Zionist (Israeli) army’s bombing.”
In the unprecedented October 7 attack that triggered the Israel-Hamas war, militants seized about 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israeli officials say remain in Gaza.
At least 27 hostages are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on the latest Israeli figures.
Last month the military announced that soldiers killed three hostages by mistake, believing they posed a threat.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s relentless offensive on Gaza has since killed at least 24,285 people, more than 70 percent of them women and children, according to the latest toll from the territory’s health ministry.
Kibbutz confirms two Israeli hostages ‘murdered’ in Gaza
https://arab.news/n8zuz
Kibbutz confirms two Israeli hostages ‘murdered’ in Gaza
- Kibbutz Beeri said in a statement it was informed that Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38, had been “murdered”
- Hamas on Monday released a video announcing the death of the two men
Somali president visits city claimed by breakaway region
MOGADISHU: Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Friday visited a provincial capital claimed by the breakaway region of Somaliland -- the first visit there by a sitting president in over 40 years.
The visit to Las Anod, the administrative capital of the Sool region, comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions in the Horn of Africa after Israel officially recognised Somaliland, drawing strong opposition from Mogadishu.
Mohamud was attending the inauguration of the president of the newly created Northeast State, which became Somalia's sixth federal state in August.
It was the first visit by a Somali president since 1984.
Somalia is a federation of semi-autonomous states, some of which have fraught relations with the central government in Mogadishu.
The Northeast State comprises the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, all territories Somaliland claims as integral to its borders.
Somaliland had controlled Las Anod since 2007 but was forced to withdraw in 2023 after violent clashes with Somali forces and pro-Mogadishu militias left scores dead.
Mohamud's visit "is a symbol of strengthening the unity and efforts of the federal government to enforce the territorial unity of the Somali country and its people", the Somali president's office said.
