Hamas released a video of Israeli hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel, both abducted in October 2023, sparking renewed pressure on Israel’s government to strike a deal for their release [Image by NBC News]
(The Post News) – Hamas has published a new video of two Israeli hostages who were taken during its deadly cross-border attack on southern Israel in October 2023. The video, released on Friday, shows 24-year-old Guy Gilboa-Dalal reporting that he is being detained in Gaza City, where Israeli forces are pushing a major offensive.
The 28 August recording shows Gilboa-Dalal speaking for nearly three and a half minutes in the back of a vehicle moving through the street. He appears exhausted and frightened, stating that he and a number of other prisoners are being held in the city and fears they will be murdered in Israeli strikes.
Early in the show, fellow hostage Alon Ohel, 24, makes a brief appearance. It is the first time Ohel has been seen since his abduction at the Nova music festival 700 days earlier. His family said they were taken aback by how ill he looked, and subsequently confirmed through consultations with eye specialists that he has lost an eye.
Gilboa-Dalal previously appeared on a Hamas propaganda film in February when he was watched as other hostages were released during a limited ceasefire.
48 Hostages Remain in Gaza
The two young men are two of 48 of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but just 20 are believed to be alive. 251 hostages were kidnapped by Hamas militants when the 7 October 2023 attack killed approximately 1,200 Israelis.
Human Rights Watch has condemned Hamas for producing hostage videos as inhumane treatment and a war crime. Israeli authorities say the videos are part of Hamas’s psychological warfare campaign.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken to Gilboa-Dalal and Ohel’s families after the release of the video, holding that the war would end in the blink of an eye if only Hamas was willing to release all the hostages and put down arms.
“No propaganda video will demoralize us or distract us from our goals,” Netanyahu’s office responded.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, representing families of the hostages, criticized the government for doing nothing. In a statement on X, the group explained:
“Those who really want the hostages released should pressure the deal that is stuck waiting for the government’s reaction and apply it to a complete deal.”
Hamas and Israel Diplomatic Deadlock
Tens of thousands of Israelis continue to stage weekly protests demanding that the government negotiate a deal. Hundreds demonstrated Friday in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” to mark 700 days since the kidnapping.
Hamas said that it had agreed to an Egyptian-Qatari-mediated proposal to release 10 hostages and the bodies of 18 others as part of a 60-day ceasefire in return for dozens of Palestinian prisoners. Israel, however, rejected partial releases, insisting that all the hostages be released at once.
US President Donald Trump declared Washington was in “very deep” talks with Hamas and asked it to release all the hostages. Opposition leader Yair Lapid had also called on Israeli negotiators to return to the negotiating table, warning that delay further jeopardized hostages’ lives.
Conversely, Israel’s hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded the “full occupation of Gaza,” suggesting that this was the only way to guarantee the safe release of the hostages. Military commanders have pushed back, warning that such a move would put the captives at greater risk.
Israel launched its war on Gaza following the October 2023 attack. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) currently claim to have captured 75% of Gaza and approximately 40% of Gaza City, which was erstwhile occupied by a million people.
Israeli soldiers shelled a west Gaza City high-rise building on Friday, claiming it was under the control of Hamas militants. Building managers denied the claim, stating the building contained displaced civilians. Video recorded the tower collapsing into rubble, billowing columns of smoke above adjacent tent encampments.
30 Palestinians were reportedly killed on Friday, with 20 of them in Gaza City, said Gaza’s health ministry. A total of over 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war erupted. The UN has warned that there are famine-like conditions in the enclave, where starvation and malnutrition have already killed at least 376 people.
With neither side willing to surrender, the future of the hostages is unclear. For Gilboa-Dalal’s family and Ohel’s family, and dozens more, each passing day of war makes the terror that their loved ones will never return ever more profound.
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