Hamas Releases Video of Two Israeli Hostages Alive in Gaza

 A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Hamas Releases Video of Two Israeli Hostages Alive in Gaza

 A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Hamas's armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Israeli media identified the pair in the undated video as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana, who were kidnapped during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

The three-minute video released by Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades shows one of the hostages, identified by media as 36-year-old Bohbot, visibly weak and lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket.

Bohbot, a Colombian-Israeli, was seen bound and injured in the face in video footage from the day of the Hamas attack. After a video of him was released last month, his family said they were "extremely concerned" about his health.

The second hostage, said to be Ohana, 24, speaks in Hebrew in the video, urging the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives -- a similar message to statements made by other hostages, likely under duress, in previous videos released by Hamas.

Bohbot and Ohana, both abducted by Palestinian gunmen from the site of a music festival, are among 58 hostages held in Gaza since the 2023 attack, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the fate of three hostages presumed alive was unclear, without naming them.

"We know with certainty that 21 hostages are alive... and there are three others whose status, sadly, we do not know," Netanyahu said in a video shared on his Telegram channel.

Israel resumed its military offensive across the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce that saw the release of dozens of hostages.

Since the ceasefire collapsed, Hamas has released several videos of hostages, including of the two appearing in Saturday's video.

Israel says the renewed offensive aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger.

Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 2,701 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,810.



Israel Airstrikes Kill at Least 100 in Gaza amid Ceasefire Talks

A picture taken from a position at the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing due to Israeli bombardment in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 18, 2025. (AFP)
A picture taken from a position at the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing due to Israeli bombardment in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Airstrikes Kill at Least 100 in Gaza amid Ceasefire Talks

A picture taken from a position at the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing due to Israeli bombardment in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 18, 2025. (AFP)
A picture taken from a position at the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing due to Israeli bombardment in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 18, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 100 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight, local health authorities said on Sunday, as mediators hosted a new round of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has expanded its strikes on the enclave, killing hundreds of people since Thursday, in preparation for a new ground offensive to achieve "operational control" in parts of Gaza.

"We have at least 100 martyrs since overnight. Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment," Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told Reuters by phone.

Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March to try to pressure Hamas into freeing Israeli hostages and has approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza strip and controlling aid.

Hamas says it will only free the hostages in return for an Israeli ceasefire.

Egypt and Qatar mediators, backed by the United States, began a new round of indirect ceasefire talks between the two sides on Saturday, but sources close to the negotiations told Reuters there had been no breakthrough.

A Palestinian official close to the talks, which are taking place in the Qatari capital, Doha, said: "Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel's commitment to end the war."

Britain's Sky News Arabia and the BBC both reported that the Palestinian group had proposed releasing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Contacted by Reuters, a Hamas official said: "Israel's position is unchanged, they want their prisoners released, without a commitment to end the war."

One of Israel's overnight strikes hit a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing women and children, wounding dozens and setting several tents ablaze.

Hamas described the strike as a "new brutal crime" and blamed the US administration for the escalation.

Among the dozens killed earlier on Sunday were three journalists and their families. Medical officials said another family in northern Gaza lost at least 20 of its members.

Zakaria Al-Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas chief Yehya Al-Sinwar whom Israel killed last October, and three of his children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their tent in central Gaza Strip, medics said. Sinwar was a history lecturer at a Gaza university.

The Gaza healthcare system is barely operational because of repeated Israeli bombardment and raids on hospitals. The blockade on aid supplies has compounded their difficulties while adding to widespread hunger, for which Israel blames Hamas.

"Hospitals are overwhelmed with the growing number of casualties, many are children, several cases of amputations and the hospitals, which have been hit repeatedly by the occupation, are struggling with shortages of medical supplies," Deqran said.

The Israeli military said in a statement Saturday it was conducting extensive strikes in areas of Gaza as part of its plan to reach its war objectives.

Israel's declared goal in Gaza is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, which attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.

The Israeli military campaign has devastated the enclave, pushing nearly all residents from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.