Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video on Thursday of two Israeli hostages, a woman in her seventies and a teenager, whom it claims to be holding in Gaza, saying it is ready to release them “if security conditions are met.”
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“We are ready to release them for humanitarian reasons when the security conditions on the ground are met,” said the spokesperson for the military wing of Islamic Jihad, known under the war name of Abu Hamza, a group that fights alongside Hamas against Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media reported this video, publishing a screenshot.
The Israeli army denounced its broadcast as “psychological terrorism of the worst kind.”
The spokesperson for Islamic Jihad affirmed that his group had participated in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, the attack of unprecedented scale carried out on October 7 by Hamas, which according to Israeli authorities more than 1,400 dead on Israeli soil, the majority civilians. Islamic Jihad is also participating alongside Hamas in the ongoing fighting in Gaza against Israeli soldiers.
Nearly 240 people, Israelis but also foreigners, were kidnapped during this attack and taken to the Gaza Strip where they are being held hostage. Hamas’ military wing claims to hold some 200.
The Jihad spokesperson said in the video that his group was also holding hostages without specifying the number.
In the video, the two hostages express their wish to be quickly released to reunite with their loved ones and criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s crisis management.
Abou Hamza announced that Islamic Jihad was ready to release the septuagenarian hostage “for humanitarian and health reasons”. “We can no longer give her the care she needs due to a lack of fuel and electricity and basic means of survival.”
Concerning the teenager, he said he was prepared to release him “for humanitarian reasons and because of his age, even if the occupier’s prisons are full of” Palestinian children.
“Our initiative will be implemented if the security conditions on the ground are met to ensure the protection of our Palestinian people,” he said, adding that the lives of the hostages could be endangered by Israeli bombings.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes have killed more than 10,800 people, mainly civilians, since October 7, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
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2023-11-10 00:46:41
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