Hamas airs propaganda clip of hostages Noa Argamani, Yossi Sharabi, Itay Svirsky
37-second, undated video ends with chyron reading ‘Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate,’ in latest instance of practice Israel has slammed as psychological warfare
Palestinian terror group Hamas on Sunday aired a new propaganda video showing three hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in a practice Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare.
Most Israeli media outlets did not publish the videos.
In undated, edited-together clips, the video released Sunday showed Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38, identifying themselves and asking the Israeli government to bring them home.
The 37-second clip ended with the chyron: “Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate.”
There was no information indicating when the videos were filmed.
Hamas has previously issued similar videos of hostages it is holding since October 7, when thousands of terrorists killed 1,200 across southern Israel and abducted 240 people of all ages.
The Palestinian terror group said earlier on Sunday it had lost contact with some hostages as Israeli forces operate in Gaza, noting that they might have been killed in the process.
“The fate of many of the enemy’s hostages and detainees has become unknown in recent weeks and the rest are all in the tunnel of the unknown due to the Zionist aggression,” Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida said in a televised statement. “Most likely, many of them were killed recently, the rest are in great danger every hour and the enemy’s leadership and army bear full responsibility.”
He added that “any talks before stopping the Israeli aggression are worthless.”
Abu Obeida also said that Hamas has been told by “several parties in the resistance fronts that they will expand their strikes on the Israeli enemy in the coming days.”
At the outset of the war, triggered by the group’s October 7 shock assault, Hamas threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for Israeli military strikes.
Israeli officials have generally declined to respond to Hamas’ public messaging on the hostages, casting it as psychological warfare.
Hagar Mizrahi, a forensic official with Israel’s Health Ministry, told local TV on December 31 that autopsies of slain hostages who had been recovered found causes of death inconsistent with Hamas’ account they had died in airstrikes.
But Israel has also made clear it is aware of the risks to hostages from its offensive, and is taking precautions.
“The military operation takes time. It obligates us to be precise, and we are adapting it in accordance with the threats and the hostages who are in the field,” IDF Spokesman Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday.
Of some 240 people taken hostage by Hamas in the October 7 cross-border killing spree, around half were released in a weeklong November truce. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza and that 25 of them have died in captivity, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military last month. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
The hostage crisis has riveted Israelis reeling from the worst attack in the country’s history. Some hostages’ relatives have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure another release deal at any cost.
Netanyahu has vowed to fight on until Hamas is destroyed, which he has argued would enable the hostages’ release.
Last month, Netanyahu said in he had asked Beijing to help free Argamani, whose mother Liora is Chinese. Suffering from a terminal illness, Liora Argamani has appealed to be reunited with her daughter before she dies.
Argamani, a second-year university student at Ben Gurion University and the only child of Yaakov and Liora Argamani. was abducted from the Supernova music festival on the morning of October 7. A video of her abduction was one of the first to be published online as Hamas terrorists massacred some 360 partygoers and abducted dozens more.
In the video shared online on October 7, Argamani is seen on the back of a motorcycle being driven by her captor, screaming “Don’t kill me!” As she is driven away, she attempts to reach for her boyfriend Avinatan Or, who was also taken captive.
Yossi Sharabi and his brother Eli Sharabi, 51, were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. They were last seen being taken by Hamas on a pickup truck, along with Ofir Engel, 18, a Jerusalem resident who was visiting the family for the weekend. Engel was released in the November truce deal.
Eli’s wife Lianne and their daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were killed by the Palestinian terrorists who broke into their home that day.
Svirsky, 38, was visiting his parents, Orit Svirsky and Rafi Svirsky, in their Kibbutz Be’eri homes for the holiday weekend, when Hamas terrorists launched their massacre in the community. Svirsky’s parents were killed in the attack.
Israel marked the 100th day of the war and of the hostages’ captivity on Sunday with a 24-hour rally in Tel Aviv. There were also a number of pro-Israel protests in Europe and the US, calling for the release of the hostages.
Reuters contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.