Hamas today released a video it said showed three female hostages who were abducted by the terrorists and taken into Gaza during the October 7 attacks.
Sitting on plastic chairs against a white tile wall, one of the women shouted as she criticised Israel’s response to the hostage crisis and for not ‘guarding them’ from the terrorists.
The woman urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a prisoner exchange for the release of all captives in her brief statement, which was likely made under duress.
Speaking in Hebrew, she becomes very agitated and starts shouting, almost screaming by the end, as the other two sitting either side of her remain silent.
In response, Netanyahu condemned the video as ‘cruel psychological propaganda’ and told the female hostages ‘our heart is with you’.
The Israeli Prime Minister named the three female hostages as Yelena Trupanob, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht, and vowed ‘to bring all the abducted and missing people home’.
Hamas today released a video it said showed three female hostages who were abducted by the terrorists and taken into Gaza during the October 7 attacks
In response, Netanyahu condemned the video as ‘cruel psychological propaganda’ and told the female hostages ‘our heart is with you’
The Israeli military confirmed yesterday that 239 hostages – aged between a few months and 80 years old – are thought to have been taken during the attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Israel has since launched an intense bombardment of Gaza, prompting fears for the safety of the hostages, many of whom are thought to be being held in Hamas’ tunnel network.
Relatives concerned about Israel’s escalating attacks in Gaza demanded to know the government’s plans for the rescue of their loved ones in a tense meeting with Netanyahu yesterday.
Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of Romi Gonen, 23, who was abducted from the Supernova dance music festival, said: ‘We spoke bluntly and made it clear to the prime minister… that a comprehensive deal based on the everyone-for-everyone principle is a deal the families would consider and has the support of all of Israel.’
She said families went to the meeting with ‘an unequivocal demand’ that Israeli plans for military action should weigh up the ‘wellbeing of our loved ones’.
Noam Alon, whose girlfriend Inbat Heiman was also taken from the festival, said freeing the hostages ‘should be the priority for the government’.
He told the BBC: ‘Israel should pay the highest price to bring them back. Israel left them behind on October 7 and it can’t do it again.’
Igal Sarusi, father of Almog Sarusi, said: ‘An everyone-for-everyone deal is acceptable and we hope it materialises soon.’
The hostages were seized when hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into southern Israel and attacked kibbutz communities, towns and military bases.
Authorities believe they are being held in a giant network of underground tunnels built by Hamas in the besieged territory.
The terrorists said they will release them in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel but Netanyahu has dismissed the offer.
In response to the October 7 massacre, which left 1,400 people, Israel has launched a withering aerial bombardment on Gaza.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,300 people, mainly civilians – and more than half women and children – have been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes.
Facing growing domestic pressure over the detainees, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday accused the terrorists of playing ‘psychological games’ over the hostages’ fate.
It comes as it emerged that Hamas terrorists beheaded Shani Louk after the gunmen kidnapped the German tattoo artist from the Nova electronic festival and paraded her on the back of a truck.
Shani Louk, 22, was kidnapped from Israel to Gaza by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Reim. Hamas gunmen took at least 200 hostages and killed about 1,400 people during the dawn raid
Ms Louk’s motionless body was paraded by Hamas gunmen after the festival attack in Israel. It was unclear if she was alive in the video, although her mother later stated that she was alive and being held in a Gaza hospital
Ms Louk, 22, was abducted from Israel to Gaza by the Hamas terrorists on October 7 from the festival near Kibbutz Reim. Hamas gunmen took at least 239 hostages and killed about 1,400 people during the dawn raid.
For more than three weeks, Ms Louk’s family prayed that the German-Israeli could be saved from the terrorists.
But Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog revealed today that the young festivalgoer was murdered by the ‘sadistic animals’ and decapitated.
The harrowing details of how Ms Louk was killed by the barbaric terrorists comes just hours after it emerged that Israeli officials had found the base of her skull.
‘I am truly sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead. Her skull has been found,’ Herzog told the German newspaper Bild.
‘This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis. It is a great tragedy and I extend my deepest condolences to her family.’
Ms Louk’s family had been helplessly waiting for news that their beloved daughter had survived the Hamas attack and could be released by the terrorists.
But earlier today, her heartbroken mother and sister announced the news they had been dreading.
‘Unfortunately we got the news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive,’ mother Ricarda said on German broadcaster RTL. Shani’s sister Adi wrote on Instagram that she ‘announced with great sadness the death of my sister’.
In response to the October 7 attack, Israel has launched the early stages of their expected ground assault and continued to obliterate entire neighbourhoods in Gaza with relentless aerial bombardments.
Today, Israeli ground forces fought deadly battles with Hamas terrorists inside Gaza on Monday and sent tanks to the outskirts of the biggest city.
Scores of Israeli tanks are seen gathered in southern Israel as Israel says it is extending its military operations in Gaza on Monday
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday shows an Israeli military vehicle driving in the north of the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles with Hamas
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday shows an Israeli military vehicle driving in the north of the Gaza Strip
Smoke billows into the air during Israeli bombardment in the north of the Gaza Strip on Monday
The intensifying military campaign since the October 7 Hamas attacks has sharply heightened fears for the 2.4 million civilians trapped inside Gaza, where the Hamas-controlled health ministry says more than 8,300 have died.
Concern has surged about the widening humanitarian crisis and the fate of hospitals in the war zone where, the World Health Organisation warns, many patients cannot be safely moved despite Israel’s evacuation order.
Netanyahu has vowed to eradicate Hamas after its gunmen killed 1,400 people and took more than 230 hostages in the worst attack in the country’s history.
The attack set off the bloodiest-ever Gaza war, marked by weeks of withering aerial bombardment and three continuous nights of ground operations centred on northern Gaza, which Israel has told civilians to evacuate.
In heavy clashes overnight, the Israeli army said it had killed dozens of militants hiding ‘inside buildings and tunnels’, and a fighter jet struck a building ‘with over 20 Hamas terrorist operatives inside’.
Columns of Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers were seen churning through the sand, and Israeli snipers took positions inside emptied residential buildings, in footage released by the army.
Dozens of Israeli tanks advanced for more than an hour into the southern fringes of Gaza City and blocked the main north-south highway, ‘firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it’, an eyewitness told AFP by phone.
Air strikes also cratered the road and brought down buildings, residents said, before the tanks pulled back from the area.