As Israeli and Hamas officials hold further indirect ceasefire talks through intermediaries in Qatar, Hamas’ military wing on Saturday released a statement saying that Lili al-Bagh, one of about 250 people taken hostage in the group’s attack on Israel, released a video of.
Almost 15 months after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that sparked Israel’s war in Gaza, around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza. Release talks have stalled since a week-long ceasefire in November 2023 that granted the release of 105 Israeli and foreign prisoners.
Albag, 19, was part of a sentry unit tasked with monitoring possible threats along the border with Gaza. During a Hamas-led offensive in southern Israel, Palestinian fighters overran the military base where she was working, killing more than 60 soldiers and abducting Arbag and six other female soldiers.
The video released Saturday was edited and showed Albag speaking for about three and a half minutes. Albagh said he had been detained for more than 450 days, but could not definitively confirm that.
Ms Albag’s family said in a statement that the footage “clearly shows her severe emotional distress” and that the footage “broke our hearts”. They called on leaders to “make decisions as if your children were there.”
“She is only tens of kilometers from us and we were unable to take her home for 456 days,” the family said.
Human rights organizations are said The production and release of the hostage video by Hamas was an inhumane treatment that amounted to a war crime. Israeli authorities consider this act a form of psychological warfare.
Both countries are under pressure from the incoming Trump administration to reach a ceasefire and hostage release agreement as soon as possible. President-elect Donald J. Trump has warned that if the hostages are not released by Inauguration Day on January 20th, there will be “hell to pay”.
But Trump has not provided details on how he plans to break the impasse between Israel and Hamas. The two countries have made seemingly contradictory demands during months of negotiations, thwarting a number of diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration.
Hamas announced Friday night that its officials were resuming meetings in Qatar’s capital Doha to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel to free the hostages. In a statement, the group reiterated its long-standing demands for Israel to end the war and withdraw from Gaza.
Israel announced earlier this week that it would send a delegation of mid-level security officials to meet with a Qatari mediator. But it is far from clear that Israeli leaders are willing to meet Hamas’s conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that the war will not end until Hamas in Gaza is destroyed.
Families of Israeli hostages fear that every day their loved ones remain in captivity will be their last. After the release of the video featuring Albag, advocacy group Hostage Families Forum called on both sides to meet Trump’s deadline.
“Every day in Hamas’s hellhole in Gaza puts living hostages at imminent risk of death,” the group said in a statement. “Sixteen days left until President-elect Trump’s ultimatum. We must not let this historic opportunity pass.”
Israel pressed ahead with a military operation in Gaza on Saturday. The enclave’s Civil Defense, a rescue agency under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, reported that multiple airstrikes left at least 11 people dead and more than 20 missing under rubble across the enclave. The agency does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
