Hamas on Saturday released footage of an apparently injured Israeli-Russian hostage held in Gaza as 11 Palestinians, including three infants, were killed in a strike on the territory, its civil defence agency said.
Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 2,396 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,495.
Gaza fighters still hold 58 hostages, 34 of whom the army says are dead. Hamas is also holding the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014.
The Palestinian group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday showing a hostage to the media and Israeli media identified as Russian-Israeli Maxim Herkin.
In the undated four-minute video, Herkin, who turns 37 at he end of May, was shown wearing bandages on his head and left arm.
Speaking in Hebrew in the video, which his family urged media to to disseminate, he implied he had been wounded in a recent Israeli bombardment and referred to himself only as “Prisoner 24”.
‘Coming home’
The media was unable to determine the health of Herkin, who gave a similar message to other hostages shown in videos released by Hamas, urging pressure on the Israeli government to free the remaining captives.
Herkin also appeared in a previous video released by Hamas in early April. In that video, he appeared alongside a second hostage Israeli media identified as soldier Bar Kuperstein.
Both men were abducted by Palestinian fighters from the Nova music festival during the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Herkin, had emigrated to Israel from Ukraine with his mother.
Before being abducted, the father of one had written to his mother: “All is well. I’m coming home.”
Several thousand Israelis demonstrated outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday, demanding action from the government to secure the hostages’ release.
The government says its renewed offensive is aimed at forcing Hamas to free its remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger.
Since the end of the truce, Hamas has released several videos of hostages. The latest images come as efforts by mediators to broker a new truce have stalled.
‘Bright light’
In Gaza, the civil defence agency said on Saturday that an overnight Israeli strike on the Khan Yunis refugee camp killed at least 11 people, including three infants aged one or less.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal say they were killed in the “bombardment of the Al-Bayram family home in Khan Yunis camp” at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT).
Bassal told AFP that eight of the dead had been identified and were all from the same extended family, including a boy and girl, both one, and a month-old baby.
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the strike, saying it targeted a “Hamas member”.
Rescue workers and residents combed the rubble for survivors with their bare hands, under the light of hand-held torches, an AFP journalist reported.
Neighbour Fayka Abu Hatab said she “saw a bright light, then there was an explosion, and dust covered the entire area”.
“We couldn’t see anything, it all went dark,” she said.
Israel has blocked all aid deliveries to Gaza since March 2, prompting dire warnings from UN agencies of impending humanitarian disaster.
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