The Palestinian militant group Hamas, facing the mounting fury of Israel’s military ground and air attacks, released a short video clip Monday showing three of the more than 220 hostages the group seized during its bloody October 7 terror rampage in southern Israel. Sitting between two others, all apparently among those held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, one of the three women issues an impassioned message directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, deriding him for failing to prevent Hamas’ attack and for failing to secure the release of the captives....CONTINUE READING
There are no other people visible during the video clip, and it is not clear how willingly the one woman who speaks gave her remarks, or whether the hostages were under any duress.
The woman who speaks starts by addressing Netanyahu to say: “You promised to free us all. Instead we bear your political and military failure.”
She refers to “a mistake” that Israel’s leaders made on October 2, five days before Hamas stormed across southern Israel, killing some 1,400 people and kidnapping over 200 others, including soldiers and civilians from infants to the elderly.
“No one came. No one was watching over us,” the woman says, without clarifying what mistake she is referring to.
Freed Israeli speaks about time as Hamas hostage 04:27
She continues her message, presumably delivered on behalf of or at least under the control of the Hamas militants holding her, to ask if the Israeli government, which has significantly ramped up both its aerial assault and its ground operations in Gaza over the last several days, “want to kill us all? Do you want to kill us all with an army?”
“Release us now,” the woman shouts, then alluding to the Hamas suggestion that it could free all of its hostages in exchange for the release of some 600 Hamas members said to be held in Israeli prisons.
“Release their prisoners. Set us all free. Let us return to our families!” she shouts, before screaming into the camera: “Now! Now!”
