The Ezzedine Al-Qassam brigades, an armed branch of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, published a video showing what seems to be an injured Israeli hostage, detained in the Gaza Strip.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, an armed branch of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, published a video on Saturday, May 3, showing what seems to be an injured Israeli hostage, detained in the Gaza Strip.
In this document of more than four minutes, of which AFP was not able to immediately confirm authenticity, appears an elongated man, the skull and the left arm covered with bandages with brown spots.
Speaking Hebrew with a Russian accent, the man presents himself as “prisoner number 24” and suggests that he was injured in an Israeli bombardment.
He also refers to the fact that Israel will soon celebrate the birthday of his independence, suggesting that the video was shot shortly before May 1, when the Hebrew State celebrated according to the Jewish calendar the 77th anniversary of its creation, May 15, 1948.
251 people removed
After two months of truce with Hamas in Gaza and several weeks of unsuccessful negative negotiations on how to extend it, Israel resumed on March 18 its air bombings followed by land operations in the territory, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirming that military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to release the hostages it still has.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023 by commandos of Hamas infiltrated in southern Israel from the neighboring Gaza Strip where the Islamist movement took power in 2007.
Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 58 are still retained in Gaza, 34 of which were declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas also retains the body of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014.
Ceasefire in Gaza: behind the scenes of a fragile agreement between Israel and Hamas
Since the end of the truce, Hamas has published several hostage videos. These new images are disseminated while the indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel via the mediation of Qatar and Egypt for the release of hostages and a cease-fire in Gaza trampled.
The Israeli military reprisal campaign for the attack on October 7, left at least 52,495 dead in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
