Hamas released a short video on Monday showing three elderly Israeli hostages whom the Islamist group seized during its October 7 rampage. Israel denounced it as a "criminal, terrorist video."
The Hamas terror group published a propaganda video Monday showing three elderly Israeli hostages who were abducted during its devastating October 7 assault on Israel. The three men, who Israel has identified as Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, and Amiram Cooper, 84, were kidnapped more than ten weeks ago along with over 240 other people by Hamas infiltrators who went on a murdering rampage through Israeli villages.
The three men, all with beards, are seen sitting next to each other in the video, which Hamas posted to Telegram. Only Peri speaks in the video and there is no information indicating when it was filmed, though the men’s appearance indicates it was after some time in captivity.
Sick: Hamas just released a new hostage video
They are making a mockery of the world. Using elderly people as props in their sick savage world.
If the world really cared they’d demand the unconditional release of the remaining hostages now. pic.twitter.com/EjZnnTUR5g
Peri, who is seated in the centre, addressed the camera, claimed that he and the other older captives who are ill are "suffering greatly in very harsh conditions." He pleaded for Israel to secure their unconditional release.
Peri was at his house in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas attack. He eventually gave himself up to save his wife, who remained hidden.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari swiftly labeled the latest video as “atrocious terror.” “It shows the cruelty of Hamas against elderly civilians, innocents, who require medical attention,” Hagari said at an evening press conference.
"Chaim, Yoram and Amiram. I hope that you hear me this evening," Hagari said in a televised briefing. "Know this - we are doing everything, everything, in order to return you safely."
At the end of November, with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, Israel and Hamas agreed to a week-long truce that included the release of over 100 captives in Gaza in return for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers who had been detained by Israel. Some of the hostages who remain in Gaza have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.