In an apparent effort to exert pressure on Israeli government, Hamas has released a video of three women it has been holding captive.
The group’s military wing disseminated the clip via social media on Monday as Israel Defence Forces (IDF) continued to bomb the enclave and advanced on Gaza City
The video description provided by Hamas said, “A number of Zionist prisoners held by Al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government.”
The women who appeared in the video were likely to have done so under duress.
The clip showed the women seated together in plastic chairs in front of a tiled wall, facing the camera. They bore no visible signs of injury.
In the 76-second clip, one of the women criticized the Israeli government in Hebrew for failing to protect people during Hamas’s attack on October 7.
Addressing Netanyahu directly, she accused the Israeli government of leaving her community defenceless during the Hamas attack. “We are getting punished for your political, national neglect,” she said. “Nobody came. Nobody heard us.”
She said there was supposed to be a ceasefire. “We are innocent citizens. Citizens who pay taxes to the state of Israel. You want to kill us all. You want to kill us all using the IDF.”
She pleaded for an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. “Let their citizens go, let their prisoners go. Free us. Free all of us. Let us return to our families now!” At the end she screamed “now” several times.
The other two remained largely silent.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an estimated 5,000 Palestinians incarcerated in Israel. Netanyahu has rejected an immediate swap and said the offensive in Gaza would pressure Hamas into making concessions.
Israel says at least 239 people are being held captive. It was not immediately possible to verify the identity of the women.
Shortly after the video release, The Israeli prime minister’s office has issued a statement in response to the video put out earlier by Hamas, which said it showed three of its captives:
“This is a cruel psychological propaganda by Hamas-ISIS.
“We are embracing the families. We will do everything to return all the kidnapped and missing people home.”
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Netanyahu identified the women as Elena Trupanov, Daniel Aloni and Ramon Kirsht.
“I embrace you. Our hearts are with you and the other the captives,” he said.
Lebanon Prime Minister Working To Avoid War
Also on Monday, Najib Mikati, Lebanon Caretaker Prime Minister said that he is working to ensure his country does not enter the Israel-Hamas war.
His remarks comes amid escalating cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel.
In an interview, Mikati said, “I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war.”
“For now Hezbollah has managed the situation rationally and wisely, and the rules of the game have remained constrained to certain limits,” Mikati said.
“But at the same time, I feel like I cannot reassure the Lebanese” because the situation is still developing, he added.
Mikati said any escalation could extend beyond Lebanon.
“I cannot rule out an escalation because there is a race to reach a cease-fire before escalation spreads in the entire region,” Mikati said.
“I fear that… chaos could engulf the entire Middle East,” he also said.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody conflict in 2006 that left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon – many of them civilians – and 160 in Israel.
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