The Palestinian militant group Hamas, facing growing anger from Israeli military ground and air strikes, released a short video clip on Monday showing three of the more than 230 hostages Israel says the group took in its bloody terror attack on May 7 was arrested in October. Sitting between two others, all apparently held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, one of the three women sends an impassioned message directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mocking him for failing to prevent Hamas’ attack and the did not ensure the release of the prisoners.
No other people are seen during the video clip, and it is not clear how forthcoming the only woman speaking was with her comments or whether the hostages were under duress.
A screenshot from a video released by the militant group Hamas on October 30, 2023 shows three women among the approximately 220 people held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. From a video released by Hamas
The woman speaking is Daniel Aloni, who was kidnapped with her daughter while they were visiting family at Kibbutz Nir Oz, the site of a brutal Hamas attack on October 7. She first turns to Netanyahu and says: “You promised to free him.” all of us. Instead, we endure your political and military failures.”
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Aloni is referring to “a mistake” made by Israel’s leaders on October 7, the day Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,400 people and kidnapping over 200 others, according to Israeli officials, including soldiers and Civilians from small children to the elderly.
“Noone came. Nobody was paying attention to us,” says Aloni, without clarifying what mistake she means.
The released Israeli talks about his time as a Hamas hostage
Continuing her message, presumably delivered at the behest of the Hamas fighters holding her, she asks whether the Israeli government, which has significantly increased both its airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza in recent days, “wants to kill us?” . all? Do you want to kill us all with an army?”
“Release us now,” she shouts, then alludes to Hamas’s proposal to release all of its hostages in exchange for the release of the approximately 6,000 Hamas members said to be held in Israeli prisons.
“Release their prisoners. Release us all. Let’s go back to our families!” Aloni says, becoming more and more emotional before screaming into the camera: “Now! Now!”
In a statement shortly after the video’s release, Netanyahu’s office condemned the clip as “cruel psychological propaganda” by Hamas and vowed to “do everything possible to return all abducted and missing people home.”
The statement included a quote attributed to Netanyahu that said: “I address Yelena Trupanov, Daniel Aloni and Ramon Kirsht, who were kidnapped by Hamas, which is committing war crimes. I hug her. Our thoughts are with you and the other abductees.”
“We are doing everything we can to bring home all abducted and missing people,” the prime minister added in the statement.
Volunteers mobilize to help Israeli hostage families
Trupanova, seen in the video on the right, is also believed to have been abducted from Nir Oz, while the third woman, Kirsht, is believed to have been abducted from Kibbutz Nirim.
So far, Hamas has released only four of the hostages captured on October 7, two Israeli women and two US-Israeli nationals. All four were released on humanitarian grounds, it said.
An elderly Israeli woman released last week told media the next day that after being beaten during the kidnapping, she was treated gently by her captors during her two weeks held hostage in Hamas’s underground maze of tunnels in Gaza.
Hamas had previously released some videos showing hostages, but the clip posted online Monday was the first time one of the prisoners was seen or heard making a statement.
Hamas, long designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and most European countries, has claimed – without providing evidence – that more than 50 of the hostages were killed by Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip over the past three weeks.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier note in this article that said Aloni was referring to an “error” on October 2nd has been corrected to reflect that she was referring to October 7th, the date of the Hamas terrorist attack.
Israel and Hamas at war
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