Hamas Executes Prisoners; Threatens Death Video Release
Hamas Executes Prisoners; Threatens Death Video Release
The military wing of Hamas posted a video in a telegram channel threatening to release a video of six Israeli hostages who were brutally murdered inside Gaza by the terrorist organization. The video reportedly shows hostages confirming their identities before they’re allowed to say any final words. The hostages, who were kidnapped on October 7, had been kept in Gaza for almost a year before being shot multiple times at close range days before the IDF discovered them in a Hamas tunnel in Gaza in late August of 2024.
Over one hundred hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza; Israeli officials estimate a third of the hostages are dead. 105 hostages were released in November of 2023. Einav Zangauker, the mother of a hostage still being held, spoke at a rally demanding a hostage release deal, saying, "Nadav is alive. My son is still alive. But every day is a Russian roulette."
She criticized Israeli leadership, saying that the government had "put the hostages to the guillotine".
In a statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel was committed to achieving a deal to release the hostages and that "Hamas refuses to conduct real negotiations,” adding that anyone who “murders hostages does not want a deal.”
On 24 October, 2023, Goldberg-Polin's mother, Rachel Goldberg, delivered an emotional speech at the UN begging for the release of her son and other hostages held by Hamas, asking, "Why is no one crying out for these people to be allowed access to the Red Cross? Why is no one demanding just proof of life? This is a global humanitarian catastrophe."
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexnder Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were discovered by the IDF in August of 2024.
In April of 2024, Hamas released a video of Goldberg-Polin in captivity with an amputated left arm, which was blown off from the elbow down after a grenade attack on the death shelter Polin and others attempted to take cover in. He reportedly managed to tourniquet the injury himself. He was in Re’im at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
In the undated video, which appeared to be recently filmed, he identifies himself, says the Israeli government should be "ashamed" for "carrying their mission in Gaza" and says that the hostages are being held in an "underground hell with no food or water."
Protesters in the capital city of Jerusalem filled the streets, marching outside of the Prime Ministers residence, while in Tel Aviv people blocked main roads and set fires across the city. An estimated 300,000 people took part in Tel Aviv, with 500,000 estimated protestors across Israel as the one-year anniversary of Oct 7 looms.
Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions states that the taking of hostages is and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever. The 1998 ICC Statute says that the taking of hostages constitutes a war crime in both international and non-international armed conflicts.
…the shooting of hostages is… a war crime in itself.
The United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, February 19, 1948