Hamas Announces Deaths of Israeli Hostages, Blames IDF Airstrikes

AP Photo/Adel Hana

Terrorist group Hamas announced on Monday that two of the Israeli hostages it kidnapped on October 7, 2023, are dead. In a video, it claimed that the hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has at least partially debunked their claims.

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The development comes one day after Hamas released a propaganda video explaining that it will notify the world of the fate of the hostages.

Hamas said on Monday that two of the hostages captured on Oct. 7 had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and released images that appeared to show their bodies, but the Israeli military cast doubt on the claim.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, chief spokesman for the Israeli military, said at a press briefing that at least one of the hostages was not killed by its forces. “That’s a Hamas lie,” he said. He did not address the fate of the other hostage.

“We are investigating the event and its circumstances, examining the images distributed by Hamas, alongside additional information at our disposal,” he added.

The claim of the hostages’ deaths, in a video released by Hamas’s military wing, came after two taunting messages from the group promising news on Monday about the fate of three hostages — the two it later said were killed, and a third it said was injured.

A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel declined to comment on the video, but the Israeli government has condemned such messages as psychological warfare.

The video included clips, apparently recorded earlier, of the two hostages who it claimed were killed, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, speaking while looking into a video camera, and then showed video apparently showing their bodies. It included narration by the hostage who reportedly survived, Noa Argamani, 26, who told of her companions’ deaths and described being wounded, herself.

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The video released early Monday showed the hostages in a clear example of psychological warfare.

The latest twisted video released by Hamas is designed to further brutalize the psyches of the hostages and their pained families:

Argamani, 26, and fellow hostages Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, were seen for the first time since their kidnapping on Oct. 7 in the video released by the terror group.

It was unclear when the video was filmed.

The sadistic terrorists end the video with a disturbing teaser: “Tomorrow we will inform you of their Fate” and then the message, “Your Government is Lying.”

In one of the three videos, Argamani recounted three missiles hitting a building in which she and the other two hostages were being held. She said one of the other hostages was buried under the rubble and that the other had been killed en route to another location. However, it is likely that her testimony was being coached by Hamas terrorists, as has happened according to other hostages who were later freed.

The news comes just after U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to shift to “lower intensity operations” in its effort to eliminate Hamas in Gaza.

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