Hamas pressures Netanyahu with videos of dead hostages

“Get us out of here alive now because, At this rate, no one will survive.” implores the young Israeli Ori Danino, one of the six hostages whose body was found by the army on Saturday evening in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in a video published on Tuesday by the Islamist organization Hamas It is not known when it was recorded.

Danino, one of the young people kidnapped by the militia on the fateful October 7 at the Nova festival, addresses the camera to implore that Israeli government reaches ceasefire agreement and the release of the hostages because, he warns, without respite, “none will survive.”

“Our conditions here are very bad“We have no food, no water, no electricity. We hear shelling and gunfire all the time,” Danino continues, probably in a scripted message, in which accused Benjamin Nentanyahu’s government of having “failed” during the Hamas attack.

“Where were you when they shot me? Where were you when we didn’t know where to run? Where were you when we were alone?” laments the 25-year-old. who had been in captivity for almost eleven months. And sentence: “You’re trying to kill us one by one with your failed rescues. and with aerial bombardments.”

The video ends with Hamas’ message: “Time is running out“.

The Palestinian militia announced on Monday that it would publish in the coming days videos of the six hostages found dead last Saturday in an underground tunnel in the city of Rafah.

Eden’s Last Cry

On Monday, Hamas released the video of Eden Yerushalmi, another of the hostages found dead on Saturday, in which the young woman pleads: “Netanyahu is doing everything it takes to free us“.

“We are all suffering, we want to go home to our families. The bombing here never stops and we fear for our lives. We are afraid of dying here“Yerusalmi continues at another point in the recording.

The young woman, who was one of the waitresses at the Nova festival, also criticizes the Israeli president for having released 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the famous soldier Gilad Schalit, captured by the Palestinian militia in 2006.

“Now they (Hamas) are asking for less than a quarter of that amount for each of us, and I don’t understand, is my life worth less? Everything that happened on October 7 is due to a failure of the State of Israel and our security forces,” he said.

The video of Yerushalmi concludes with a message from Hamas in which it insists that only a truce agreement will facilitate “the return of the hostages alive” and that The military pressure of the army will lead to “failure and death.”

Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine determined that the six hostages were “killed” by “several gunshots“Hamas militiamen. According to the forensic examination, the deaths occurred approximately 48 to 72 hours before their examination (between Thursday and early Friday morning),” according to a statement from the Ministry of Health.

Gantz accuses Netanyahu

Former Israeli Minister Benny Gantzwho left the government last June due to disagreements over the Gaza war, attacked Netanyahu, whom he accuses of having “continually delayed“an agreement for the release of the hostages,” referring to the clauses that the Israeli president has included in the latest drafts, among which is that the Philadelphia corridor must remain under Israeli control.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Gantz assured that Israeli Prime Minister is not telling the truth when he promises to bring the hostages back alive.

“The problem is not Philadelphia, but the lack of real strategic decisions” said Gantz, who also served as army chief of staff.

“This does not surprise me because Netanyahu is focused on his political survival and damaging our strategic ties with the United States, while Iran is moving towards nuclear weapons,” he continued in his speech. “We must bring back the hostages,” he insisted, “although it will be at a very high price.”

At the same time, Netanyahu’s office issued a brief statement in response, warningly stating that “reality speaks for itself” and asks Gantz if he will not contribute “to the victory and the return of our hostages”, It is better not to intervene.”

Shock in Israel

The rescue of the six dead hostages has caused a major political and social upheaval in Israel, with a deluge of criticism against Netanyahu – from families to the opposition, and even part of his government – as well as daily demonstrations against the president and a general strike.

After almost eleven months of war in Gaza, only one, in November, allowed 105 hostages to return home. Today, of the 251 kidnapped, they remain in 97 captives -at least 33 confirmed dead, according to the army-. There are four other hostages for years, including two dead soldiers.