Hamas airs video of hostages

Hamas aired video on
Sunday showing three Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza
urging their government to stop the offensive against the
Palestinian Islamist group and bring about their release, as
both sides marked the 100th day of the war.
The 37-second video of Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53,
and Itay Svirsky, 38, ended with the chyron: “Tomorrow we will
inform you of their fate.”
Hamas said earlier on Sunday it had lost contact with some
hostages as Israeli forces shelled Gaza, noting that they might
have been killed in the process. At the outset of the war, it
also threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for Israeli
military strikes.
Israeli officials have generally declined to respond to
Hamas’ public messaging on the hostages, casting it as
psychological warfare. But Israel has also made clear it is
aware of the risks to hostages from its offensive, and is taking
precautions.
“The military operation takes time. It obligates us to
be precise, and we are adapting it in accordance with the
threats and the hostages who are in the field,” chief armed
forces spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday.
Of some 240 people seized by Hamas in an Oct. 7
cross-border killing spree that sparked the war, around half
were released in a November truce. Israel says 132 remain in
Gaza and that 25 of them have died in captivity.
The hostage crisis has riveted Israelis already shocked
by the war, and some relatives of the captives have urged Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enter another truce or even call
off the war. He has vowed to fight on until Hamas is destroyed,
which he argued would enable the hostages’ release.
Last month, Netanyahu said in parliament he had asked
Beijing to help free Argamani, whose mother Liora is Chinese.
Suffering from a terminal illness, Liora Argamani has appealed
to be reunited with her daughter before she dies.