The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas today released a video showing two Israeli hostageswho were kidnapped during its attack on October 7 in southern Israel and taken in Gaza.
The two hostages are identified as Keith Siegel, 64, and Omri Miran, 47. The Hostage Families Forum confirmed their identities.
Hamas had already released a video on Wednesday of another Israeli hostage, 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Paulin.
This new video is undated, but 47-year-old Omri Miran is concerned that he has been in the hands of Hamas for 202 days. The 202nd day of his captivity falls on Thursday.
The new video is released in the midst of negotiationswith the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, for a truce in the fighting in the Gaza Strip and for the release of a number of hostages.
Speaking apparently under pressure, Omri Miran describes “a difficult situation” because of “lots of bombing” of Israel in the Gaza Strip. He is calling on his family to put pressure on the government to reach an agreement with Hamas that would allow the release of the hostages. Miran says he hopes to be able to reunite with his family for Israel’s Independence Day on May 14.
“This evidence that Keith Siegel and Omri Miran are alive makes it clear that the Israeli government must do everything possible to reach an agreement to return all hostages before Independence Day,” states the Hostage Families Forum.
The two hostages are talking separately, and nothing can be seen behind them. They send their love to their families and ask to be released.
Miran was taken hostage while at his home in the Nahal Oz kibbutz in front of his wife and two young daughters during the deadly attack by Hamas, which caused the war in Gaza to break out.
Siegel, who is also an American citizen, was captured along with his wife in another border town. She was later released during the brief November truce.
The video was posted during the Passover holiday, when Jews traditionally celebrate the biblical story of their liberation from slavery to the Pharaohs in Egypt and their passage (Pesach) from the Red Sea to the Promised Land.
At one point in the video, Siegel bursts into tears as he recounts that last year he celebrated Easter with his family and expresses his hope that he will be reunited with them.
Follow Reader.gr on Google News to always be up to date on all the news from Greece and the world.
