Hamas, which controls Gaza, still has around 130 hostages. Hamas and Israel seem to be closer than before to the creation of a cease-fire agreement.
On Saturday, the extremist organization Hamas again released a video of the hostages it is holding in Gaza.
64 years old in the video Keith Siegel and 47 years old Omri Miran talking to the camera one by one. They send greetings to their families and demand to be set free.
Reuters has confirmed that the men speaking in the video are indeed Siegel and Miran.
The time or location of the video could not be confirmed. However, it seems fresh.
Miran says he has been a prisoner for 202 days, and Sunday marked 205 days since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel. In addition, the men talk in the video about how they would have liked to celebrate the Jewish Pesach together with their families. This year, the party started on April 22 and will end on April 30.
It is unclear to what extent the hostages have been free to choose what they say in the videos published in this story. It is also not known whether the prisoners were forced to say certain things. Although the identities of the men in the videos have been confirmed, the videos are also part of Hamas propaganda.
The families of the hostages have given their approval to the media to publish the videos.
“We have lived in terrible conditions”
In total, Hamas kidnapped more than 250 people during its attack on Israel on October 7. In late November, it released about a hundred hostages during a six-day ceasefire.
Miran was abducted by Hamas fighters from his home in the Nahal Oz kibbutz in front of his wife and two daughters. Siegel, a dual citizen of Israel and the United States, was kidnapped together with his wife from the Kfar Aza kibbutz. Siegel’s wife was released during the November ceasefire.
In the video, Siegel, among other things, remembers the Pesach celebration with his family last year and bursts into tears.
– We are in danger because of airstrikes. This is very scary and we have lived in terrible conditions for a long time. I ask, until what? Siegel says.
– Sometimes I feel that you have abandoned us. I demand the prime minister and all ministers to be flexible in the negotiations so that an agreement can be reached soon.
Miran, on the other hand, says that she wishes that she could celebrate Israel’s Independence Day on May 14 together with her family. He also talks about the continuous bombings.
Earlier this week, Hamas released a video of the 23-year-old Israeli-American they kidnapped from the Supernova festival From Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Polin appeared to be seriously injured – part of his arm had been amputated.
Among other things, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a video on the community service X:
Israel has called the release of the videos “psychological terrorism”.
Ceasefire negotiations underway
It is estimated that there are still around a hundred hostages alive in Hamas captivity, The Times of Israell tells. Most of them are men – Hamas released the surviving children and most of the women in November.
The release of the videos fueled anti-government protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday. The protesters demanded the government to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas and to be flexible in their demands.
Israel and Hamas have been negotiating a new ceasefire for months. Hamas has demanded a permanent ceasefire and that Israel allow those who fled northern Gaza to return to the area. Israel has so far not agreed to the demands.
On Saturday, Israel delivered its response to Hamas’ latest cease-fire proposal.
According to media reports Israel’s war cabinet is more willing than before to be flexible about its conditions for a ceasefire.
According to information leaked from the government, Israel is about to agree that in return for a ceasefire, Hamas will release 33 hostages on “humanitarian grounds”, i.e. women, children, men over 50 and the sick.
In addition to the hostages, the lives of more than a million Palestinians packed into the city of Rafah are at stake. Rafah, located at the very southern tip of Gaza, is the only corner spared from Israel’s ground attack, but Israel is planning to expand its ground operation there as well.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that if Hamas agrees to Israel’s ceasefire terms, the ground attack on Rafah will be suspended.
Sources: Reuters,