Islamic Jihad releases video of two Israeli hostages pleading for their release
2023.12.19 18:01
(Reuters) -The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, released a video of two male Israeli hostages in Gaza pleading for their release on its Telegram account on Tuesday.
The two men identified themselves as Gadi Moses and Elad Katzir and appeared in a short video asking for efforts to be intensified so they can reunite with their families.
“We are dying every moment. We are in an unbearable situation,” said Moses, looking at the camera against a plain background. The two men were both unshaven and appeared to have lost weight.
Moses is a farmer aged about 79 who was captured from a kibbutz on Oct. 7 when the Hamas militant group carried out its rampage in southern Israel. Katzir, 47, was also taken from a kibbutz along with his mother, who was later released. His father was killed, according to media reports.
On Monday, Hamas released a short video showing three other elderly Israeli hostages whom the Islamist group seized during its rampage, when it took around 240 people hostage. Israel denounced it as a “criminal, terrorist video.”
Israel and Hamas agreed to a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, that included the release of more than 100 of the hostages from Gaza in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli jails.
Some of the hostages who remained in Gaza have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.
