GAZA CITY: The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad published a video Thursday of an Israeli-German hostage who was abducted to Gaza in October 2023 during the attack that sparked the Gaza war.
In the six-minute video, the male hostage, speaking in Hebrew, is seen watching recent news footage of the hunger crisis in Gaza. He identifies himself and pleads with the Israeli government to secure his release.
AFP was not immediately able to confirm the authenticity of the video nor the date it was filmed, but was able — along with several Israeli news outlets — to identify the hostage as Rom Braslavksi, a German-Israeli dual national.
Islamic Jihad announced last week that it had lost contact with the hostage and repeats this in commentary at the beginning of the latest video, suggesting the images were filmed more than a week ago.
A previous video of Braslavski was released on April 16.
Originally from Jerusalem, Braslavski was a security agent at the Nova music festival, one of the sites attacked in October 2023 by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters, including members of Islamic Jihad.
The footage, distributed by a movement considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, shows the young man watching an Arabic-language television channel broadcasting a report on hunger in Gaza.
Before his abduction, he rescued several festivalgoers, according to witnesses who managed to escape.
Of the 251 people taken from Israel that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army.
Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza since the kidnappings, but a truce from January 19 to March 17 allowed the return of 33 hostages to Israel, eight of them dead, in exchange for the release of approximately 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli jails.
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Islamic Jihad publishes video of Israeli hostage held in Gaza
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Islamic Jihad publishes video of Israeli hostage held in Gaza
- Of the 251 people taken from Israel that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army
- Rom Braslavksi was a security agent at the Nova music festival, one of the sites attacked in October 2023 by Hamas
Syria gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’: ministry
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry said on Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism.
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by IS during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “an Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by IS during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “an Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
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