The Palestinian Islamist organization Islamic Jihad released a video on Monday of a live Israeli hostage, one of 132 still held in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil.
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In this video from Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Israeli, speaking in English and Hebrew, states that he is speaking on January 5th. He asks the Israeli authorities to work for his release and an exchange with Palestinian prisoners.
The family of the hostage captured at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 called on the media not to distribute the video.
Around 75 people were kidnapped in this kibbutz near the Gaza Strip.
The Oct. 7 attack, unprecedented in its violence and scale, by the Islamist commandos of Hamas, in which its ally Islamic Jihad took part, left about 1,140 dead in Israel, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest Official Israeli data figures available.
According to Israeli authorities, about 250 people have been taken hostage by the two Palestinian Islamist movements, 132 of whom are still being held in Gaza. According to Israel, several of them died and their bodies are still in the territory.
In retaliation for the October 7 attack, Israeli authorities shelled the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized power in 2007, and have been conducting ground operations there since October 27.
Since the outbreak of war, 23,084 people, mostly women, children and young people, have been killed in the small Palestinian territory, according to the latest figures announced by the Hamas government on Monday.