Hamas Releases Video of 3 Israeli Hostages

On the 100th day of the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas released an undated video of three Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza. Reuters reports that the 37-second video, in which the hostages call for Israel to halt its offensive against Hamas so they will be released, ends with superimposed text saying, "Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate." Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, are shown in the video. Israel says that of the 240 hostages Hamas seized on October 7, 132 have not yet been released, and 25 have died in captivity.

The Times of Israel calls the video a "propaganda clip" and notes that Israel has in the past referred to the practice as "psychological warfare." Most Israeli media outlets do not air such videos. Earlier Sunday, Hamas claimed it had lost contact with some hostages and said Israel may be to blame, suggesting the hostages died in Israel's airstrikes on Gaza. "The fate of many of the enemy's hostages and detainees has become unknown in recent weeks and the rest are all in the tunnel of the unknown due to the Zionist aggression," a Hamas spokesperson said. But an Israeli forensic official said last month that autopsies of slain hostages whose bodies were recovered showed causes of death that were not consistent with that allegation. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)