PALESTINIAN MILITANT GROUP Hamas have released a new video announcing the death of two Israeli hostages who were taken to Gaza on 7 October.
The video showed a woman hostage named in Israeli media as Noa Argamani, 26, speaking under duress, revealing that two men she was held captive with had been killed in captivity.
It was not clear when the video was taken.
Hamas had released another video yesterday showing Argamani along with two hostages who were seen alive.
The pair – named in Israeli media as Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38 – were the same men announced as having been killed in today’s video.
In a statement released with today’s video, Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said the two men were killed in “the Zionist army’s bombing”.
In its unprecedented 7 October attack which triggered the Israel-Hamas conflict, militants seized about 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israeli officials says remain in Gaza, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
Shortly after the video’s release, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant told a news conference that Hamas was applying “psychological pressure” to the families of the hostages.
The army was helping the families, he said, and keeping them up to date with any developments.
“Hamas has been hit hard by the IDF (military),” he said.
“What’s left for it is to touch a sensitive nerve in Israeli society through acts of psychological abuse against the family members.”
Ruling out any ceasefire in Gaza, Gallant reiterated that the only way to get the hostages back home is by continuing to apply “military pressure”. Otherwise, he said, “nobody will talk to us” and we “will not succeed in reaching any agreements”.
Israel’s army has also slammed Hamas for releasing the video, saying it was a “brutal use of innocent hostages”.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari rejected Hamas’s claim the two hostages were killed by Israeli bombing, saying: “This is a lie by Hamas.”
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