TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Hamas released a video on Friday of two Israeli hostages seized from a music festival in Israel in October 2023, and one said he was being held in Gaza City, where the Israeli military has launched a major offensive to wipe out the militant group.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel are two of 48 people still being held by Hamas in Gaza, with 20 thought to be still alive.
Palestinian militants took 251 hostages into the enclave after its cross-border attack on southern Israeli communities in 2023 that killed about 1,200 people, triggering the war. More than 64,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, local health authorities say, with much of the enclave laid in ruins and its residents facing a humanitarian crisis.
The video was edited and featured an exhausted-looking Gilboa-Dalal speaking for around three-and-a-half minutes. He is seen in a car for some of the video dated August 28. Reuters could not independently determine when the video was recorded.
He says that he is being held in Gaza City along with several other hostages and that he is afraid of being killed by Israel’s offensive on the city.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military last month to capture Gaza’s largest urban centre, Gaza City, attacking what the government calls the last bastion of Hamas. An Israeli military spokesman said on Thursday that it now controls about 40% of the city, where about one million people lived prior to the war. The military controls about 75% of Gaza.
The Israeli military bombed a high-rise building in the city’s west on Friday that it said was being used by Hamas and that civilians had been warned beforehand. The military did not provide any evidence that militants were using the building.
The building’s management issued a statement saying that it was being used for Palestinians displaced by the war, denying that it had been used for anything other than civilian purposes.
Footage showed the moment the building was struck, collapsing moments after impact and sending thick clouds of smoke billowing over nearby tent camps sheltering Palestinians.
Across Gaza, 30 Palestinians were killed by the military on Friday, including 20 in Gaza City, Gaza’s health ministry said.
The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometres of the city centre.
Ismail, a father of two from Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, described heavy fire and powerful explosions carried out by the Israeli military. He told Reuters that his family feared they would not be able to return if they fled.
“We pray for a ceasefire,” he said by phone.
In the video, Gilboa-Dalal, 24, appears to be in the backseat of a car that is being driven around. As the car passes by buildings, he identifies one as belonging to the Red Cross. Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to see the hostages.
At one point, Ohel, 24, is also seen.
DICTATED SPEECH
Gilboa-Dalal was seen in a video in February being forced to watch other hostages being freed under a temporary ceasefire. Hostages who were filmed in similar videos and have since been freed have said their captors had dictated to them what to say.
Human Rights Watch has condemned Hamas and another militant group in Gaza for releasing videos of hostages, calling it inhumane treatment that amounts to a war crime. Israeli officials have described the videos as psychological warfare.
Netanyahu on Friday said it was “cruel propaganda”.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have staged weekly demonstrations calling for an end to the war to secure the hostages’ release. Hundreds gathered on Friday at a public square in Tel Aviv to mark 700 days since the hostages were taken captive.
After the release of the video, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on X urged Israeli negotiators to resume talks on a deal to secure the hostages. Those released so far were as a result of diplomatic negotiations mediated by the United States and Arab states, but the last round of talks collapsed in July.
However, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel should respond by fully occupying Gaza.
Israel’s military leadership has warned Netanyahu against expanding the war, according to Israeli officials. Families of Israeli hostages and their supporters fear the attack could endanger the captives.
Hamas has said it would release some hostages for a temporary ceasefire. Netanyahu is pushing for an all or nothing deal with Hamas releasing all hostages and surrendering.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday military operations would intensify until Hamas accepts Israel’s conditions for ending the war: release the hostages and disarm. Otherwise, the group would be destroyed, he said.
The militant group has long offered to release all hostages in exchange for an end to the war and Israel’s withdrawal.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Sharon Singleton, William Maclean)
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