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Pope Pledges to Release Israeli Captives Held by Hamas

Pope Francis meets with relatives of the Israelis being held by Hamas (Israeli Foreign Ministry)
Pope Francis meets with relatives of the Israelis being held by Hamas (Israeli Foreign Ministry)
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Pope Pledges to Release Israeli Captives Held by Hamas

Pope Francis meets with relatives of the Israelis being held by Hamas (Israeli Foreign Ministry)
Pope Francis meets with relatives of the Israelis being held by Hamas (Israeli Foreign Ministry)

Pope Francis met in Rome on Wednesday with the families of Israelis being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The meeting was held at the initiative of the Israeli Embassy in Rome.

Pope Francis vowed before the Israeli delegation to work toward bringing home two Israeli civilians and two soldiers.

The meeting lasted 45 minutes and was attended by the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, Raphael Schutz, the head of the Diaspora and Religious Affairs section at the Foreign Ministry, Shuli Davidovich, and the Israeli ambassador to Rome, Alon Bar.

The relatives asked for the help of the Pope and the Catholic Church to recover the bodies of the two soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and release two Israeli citizens, Avraham Mengistu and Hashem al-Sayid.

The Pope expressed his sympathy for the suffering of mothers and families. He pledged to work with governments and religious leaders to help bring their children back.

Francis offered prayers for the swift and safe return of the living captives to their families.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defense organized the visit to Rome as part of an international campaign to raise global attention to the issue after the families accused the Israeli government and army leadership of "doing nothing to release the children."

Goldin's father made harsh accusations, blaming the government for neglecting the fate of their loved ones for eight years. He warned that such behavior would make every mother hesitate to send her son to military service because there are no guarantees that the leadership would protect them.

Israeli sources said the meeting discussed last week's claims by Hamas leader in Gaza Yehya Sinwar that Israel was thwarting all efforts to reach a prisoner exchange deal.

He warned Tel Aviv had a limited time to complete the deal, or there won't be any in the future.

The meeting also addressed Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, who died in Israeli prison due to medical negligence. Palestinians warn that dozens of other prisoners in detention could face a similar fate.

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Israeli Settlers Seen on Camera Assaulting a Palestinian Village. Police Arrest Only Palestinians

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Settlers Seen on Camera Assaulting a Palestinian Village. Police Arrest Only Palestinians

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

Over a dozen Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the southern Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, beating residents with sticks and rocks, in an incident captured with rare clarity by security cameras. The video obtained by AP and testimonies from Palestinian witnesses appeared to conflict with the account of the attack provided by Israeli police and military, who arrested over 20 Palestinians afterwards.
The violence in the village of Jinba follows a settler attack earlier this week in a nearby village in which Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land," was left bloodied and bruised before being detained by Israeli soldiers for about 20 hours.
The videos provide uncommonly stark images of the type of settler assault Palestinians in the West Bank say now occurs frequently. They say radical Jewish settlers rarely, if ever, face repercussions for attacking Palestinian communities, while Palestinians are often rounded up in droves and detained by Israeli forces.
Settlers descend on Jinba
AP obtained footage from two security cameras belonging to the Al-Amur family, whose home came under attack. Footage from one camera shows a jeep, an ATV and a white pick-up truck speed up to the edge of the village.
A number of settlers pile out of them and run out of the frame, and the screams of Palestinian women can be heard. The settlers then return into view, and at least 15 of them ascend a slope, getting closer to the camera.
Many are masked, at least three are carrying bats or sticks, and one is armed with an assault rifle. One can be seen throwing a rock, then bending to collect more.
The matriarch of the Al-Amur family, Oula Awad, said she saw the settlers approaching her house between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM, as she was doing laundry outside with her daughter. Her son, Qusai, 17, and husband, Aziz, 63, were washing up to prepare for Ramadan prayers when the settlers pulled up in vehicles and emerged.
“The settler runs toward me and told me, ‘Don’t wave. Do not move forward. We will hit you,’” she said.
In security footage taken from a different camera at the house, she and her daughter, 16-year-old Handa, are seen screaming and waving clothes in the air, calling for help. At one point, Awad makes a motion waving her arms. It is not clear if she throws something at a settler rushing toward her.
The settlers are then seen converging on Qusai. One settler begins hitting him with a stick as he tries to run away. Another settler smashes his head with a rock, sending him to the ground. Four settlers then kick and beat him before running away.
Awad said the settlers locked her and her daughter in a side room as they beat her younger son, Ahmad, and her husband Aziz.
“They entered the room and hit the windows,” said Awad. They tried to burn the furniture. “My husband was standing on the stairs, and they started beating him.”
A video taken by Qusai and shared with the AP showed Ahmad on the ground with a head laceration. Aziz lies nearby, his face bloodied.
Five Palestinians remain in hospitals. Aziz had a chest injury and underwent surgery for skull fractures; Ahmed, 16, is in intensive care. Qusai suffered a broken arm, bruises and cuts. Another villager, Maher Mohammed, had cuts and bruises, as did his son Osama, who was also undergoing kidney examinations.
Nidal Younis, the head of the Masafer Yatta village council, witnessed part of the attack and was detained by police for two hours afterward. He said soldiers who arrived on scene following the attack prevented Palestinians from nearby villages from helping and threw stun grenades at homes, a claim to which the military did not respond.
Police and military provide a conflicting account Following the incident, Israeli police said they detained 22 Palestinians from the village on suspicion of stone throwing and brought them in for further investigation.
They said Palestinians had attacked two settler shepherds nearby, minorly injuring them.
“The security forces view the series of attacks in the area seriously, and will take strong action to bring those involved to justice,” the police said. They did not respond when asked by the AP why no Israeli civilians were arrested.
The military gave a somewhat different account, saying an Israeli civilian had been attacked and injured by militants near an Israeli settlement.
Then, it said “a violent confrontation developed between a number of Israeli civilians and Palestinians,” injuring another Israeli civilian.
Masafer Yatta was designated by the Israeli military as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s, and the military has ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.
Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli forces usually turn a blind eye or intervene on behalf of the settlers.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out widescale military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.