Hamas publishes a video of Israeli hostages in Gaza and demands that Netanyahu agree to the prisoner exchange

The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, faces increasing anger from Ground and air attacks by the Israeli armyIsrael released a short video on Monday showing three of the more than 220 hostages it kidnapped during its deadly October 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel. Sitting between two others, all of whom were apparently among those detained in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, one of the three women addressed an impassioned message directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mocking him for failing to prevent a Hamas attack and for failing to secure his release. Of the prisoners.

No other people appear during the video, and it is not clear how willing the woman who spoke was to make her remarks, or whether the hostages were subjected to coercion.

The woman speaking is Danielle Aloni, who was kidnapped with her daughter while visiting family on Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was The site of the brutal attack launched by Hamas On October 7. She began by addressing Netanyahu, saying: “You promised to liberate us all. Instead, we bear your political and military failure.”

Aloni points to a “mistake” made by Israel’s leaders on October 7, the day Hamas militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200 others according to Israeli officials, including soldiers and civilians from infants to the elderly.

“No one came. No one was watching us,” Aloni says, without explaining what error she was referring to.

Her letter, which she supposedly delivered at the request of Hamas fighters holding her, goes on to ask whether the Israeli government, which has largely It intensified its air attack and ground operations In Gaza over the past few days, “Do you want to kill us all? Do you want to kill us all with an army?”

“Release us now,” she shouted, then referred to Hamas’ proposal to release all its hostages in exchange for the release of nearly six thousand Hamas members said to be held in Israeli prisons.

“Release their prisoners. Release all of us. Let us go back to our families!” “Now! Now!” Aloni says, becoming increasingly emotional before shouting into the camera.

In a statement issued shortly after the video was published, Netanyahu’s office condemned the clip as “cruel psychological propaganda” by Hamas and pledged to “do everything in its power to return all the kidnapped and missing persons to their homes.”

The statement included a quote attributed to Netanyahu in which he said: “I address Yelena Trupanov, Daniel Aloni, and Ramon Kirscht, who were kidnapped by Hamas, which is committing war crimes. I embrace you. Our hearts are with you and the other kidnappers.”

The Prime Minister added in the statement: “We are doing our best to return all the kidnapped and missing persons to their homeland.”

Trupanova, shown on the right in the video, is also believed to have been kidnapped from Nir Oz, while the third woman, Kirshet, is believed to have been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim.

Hamas has so far released only four of the hostages it took on October 7: two Israeli women and two American-Israeli citizens. She added that the four were released for humanitarian reasons.

An elderly Israeli woman released last week told media the next day that after being beaten during the kidnapping, her captors treated her kindly during the two weeks they were held hostage in a Hamas underground warehouse in Gaza.

Hamas had previously released two videos showing hostages, but the clip posted online on Monday was the first time a prisoner was seen or heard giving a statement.

Hamas, which has long been classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and most European countries, has claimed – without providing any evidence – that more than 50 hostages have been killed by Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip over the past three weeks.

Editor’s note: The previous reference in this article that Aloni spoke of a “mistake” made on October 2 has been corrected to reflect that she was referring to October 7, the date of the Hamas terrorist attack.