Hamas released a video of three elderly male hostages amid reports of continued talks for a hostage deal and the entry of commercial goods into Gaza for the first time since the start of the Gaza war.
“You have to release us from here – it does not matter the cost,” hostage Chaim Peri, 79, said in the video, which opened with the statement, “Don’t let us grow old here.”
All three of the men, including Yoram Metzger, 80, and Amiram Cooper, 85, are from Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was one of the southern border communities most severely attacked by Hamas on October 7.
“We don’t want to be casualties as a direct result of the IDF military airstrikes,” he said.
The three men, all with beards, are seen sitting next to each other in the video, which Hamas posted to Telegram.
Peri, who sat in the middle, said he and other elderly hostages who have health issues are “suffering greatly in very harsh conditions.”
Peri was at his house in Nir Oz when Hamas attacked. He tried to repel the gunmen while hiding his wife behind a sofa, his son later told Reuters. He eventually gave himself up to save his wife, who remained hidden.
Cooper and Metzger, seen in Monday’s video and also from Nir Oz, were captured along with their wives, both of whom were returned to Israel during the truce.
“We are the generation who built the foundation for the creation of Israel. We are the ones who started the IDF military. We don’t understand why we have been abandoned here,” he said.
Kibbutz calls for their residents back
Kibbutz Nir Oz echoed their call, warning that “time is running out” as it insisted that a deal must be concluded for the release of the remaining 129 captives in Gaza.
“With every day that passes, their situation gets worse,” the kibbutz said.
It appeared to reference the incident over the weekend in which the IDF accidentally shot three Gaza hostages who tried to be rescued by them.
“The events of the last few days unfortunately prove that the condition of the captives is not improving day by day, especially when it comes to older people. They must be returned to their families now, before it is too late,” Nir Oz said.
Military spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari called it “a criminal, terrorist video” that shows “Hamas’s cruelty against very elderly civilians, innocents who need medical care.”
“Chaim, Yoram and Amiram. I hope that you hear me this evening,” Hagari said in a televised briefing. “Know this: We are doing everything – everything – to return you safely.”
Qatar and Egypt had initially mediated a deal at the end of November by which they secured the release of 105 hostages in exchange for a seven-day pause to the war.
Mossad Chief David Barnea met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe last week and there were reports that they had been scheduled to meet in Warsaw with CIA chief Bill Burns on Monday, but there was no confirmation that the meeting had taken place.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan reiterated on Monday the group’s position that any negotiations on a hostage exchange were off the table until Israel stops its war on Gaza.
“We are open to initiatives from Qatar and Egypt about a hostage exchange that would stop the war in Gaza,” Hamdan told a press conference in Beirut.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will continue with its campaign until it has destroyed Hamas.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that Israel had allowed commercial goods to enter Gaza for the first time since the start of the war as part of an effort to improve the situation of Palestinians in the Strip.
“We hope to see this channel solidified and expanded over the coming days,” he said. “It’s a critical step toward improving the lives of the Palestinians in Gaza that we see not just humanitarian aid delivered but also commercial goods that can be sold in stores and markets.”
Israel has previously insisted that it would only allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Most of the 2.3 million Gazan Palestinians have been displaced, with Hamas asserting that close to 20,000 have been killed according to its own data. Israel has claimed that over 7,000 of those fatalities were combatants.
This is a developing story.