Hamas video shows 2 Israeli captives watching Saturday’s hostage release
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Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert, are released as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swop deal between Hamas and Israel in Nuseira.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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GAZA CITY - Hamas published a video showing two Israelis still held captive in Gaza watching the Feb 22 ceremony in which the militants released six hostages in accordance with a ceasefire deal with Israel.
The two men can be identified as Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa Dalal. Although their families authorised the publication of the video, they described it as “sickening”.
The Hamas footage shows the two men in a vehicle, watching the ceremony in the central Gaza district of Nuseirat and pleading for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure their release.
The two hostages are seen looking from inside the vehicle toward the stage where the ceremony was being held. Then they call on Mr Netanyahu to secure their release, often covering their faces and folding their hands.
Mr David, a big music fan, was seized from the Nova festival during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
Mr Gilboa Dalal, a lover of Japan who has learnt the language, was also taken captive from the festival.
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of all hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said the video’s release was an “act of psychological torture” and a “sickening display of cruelty”.
“Every second counts. Our loved ones are suffering, tortured, and dying in the dark, suffocating tunnels of Hamas,” the group said in a statement.
“This nightmare cannot be allowed to continue for one more day,” it said, urging Mr Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to bring home all the remaining captives from Gaza.
Earlier on Feb 22, Hamas released six Israeli hostages from different locations in Gaza as part of a ceasefire agreement with Israel mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
Palestinian militants still hold 62 hostages in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead. AFP
