The undated 37-second video of Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, released on Sunday night showed them speaking presumably under duress, pleading with Israel’s government to end the war and get them home.
The clip ended with a Hamas caption that on Monday, “we will inform you of their fate”. Israel has blasted such videos as psychological warfare and insists it will not be deflected from its goals in Gaza, after Hamas launched raids into southern Israel on October 7 that claimed 1,200 lives.
Among the targets was a music festival from which Ms Argamani and her boyfriend were seized. An early clip released by Hamas showed her pleading for her life as she was taken away on the back of a motorbike.
And literally in the same month, they started blockading Gaza. This was an act meant to divide Palestinians into Gazans and West Bankers, not a step taken by the peace-loving Israeli government to bring about an end to the conflict. This is the reasoning of the guy who suggested the idea, hence the blockade because they can’t have a success example in Gaza (or anywhere in Palestine).