Hamas is being accused of taunting the families of six Israeli hostages after releasing a propaganda video labeled as a "teaser" video for their "last messages" on the day they were executed.
The bodies of the six hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40 and Almog Sarusi, 27 – were returned to their families on Sept. 1.
During their funerals, which took place the following day, relatives of other victims expressed their grief and frustration at the lack of progress in securing the release of the hostages over the past 11 months. That same day, Hamas posted a black-and-white video on their official Telegram account of the six hostages before they were executed.
The video showed the six hostages gaunt and exhausted as they each identified themselves.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated that based on their initial assessment, the hostages were fatally shot at close range between two to three days before their bodies were discovered during an IDF operation on Aug. 31 in a tunnel below Rafah in southern Gaza. (Related: IDF recovers 6 bodies of Israeli hostages from Gaza tunnels.)
At the end of Hamas' video, the group sent a message in Hebrew, English and Arabic texts warning that the "last messages" of the six hostages would be released "in a matter of hours."
Mustafa: Hamas no longer believes that keeping hostages gives it power over Israel
The newly released video is part of a series of disturbing videos released to allegedly ignite "psychological terror" among Israelis.
For instance, Hamas released another video on Sept. 3 featuring Danino, one of the slain six hostages who was abducted during the Re'im music festival massacre in southern Negev on Oct. 7. However, it was not clear when the video was filmed.
Goldberg-Polin, a dual Israeli-American citizen abducted during the same music festival massacre, also appeared in another video released in April. At the time, Goldberg-Polin, who lost a part of his left arm due to a Hamas grenade attack on Oct. 7, identified himself as being held captive for "nearly 200 days." Meaning, the footage was only taken shortly before its release that month.
All this has intensified public anger in Israel, where protests have erupted outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. Demonstrators called for a ceasefire and demanded the government take action to secure the release of other hostages still in captivity. Protesters blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for sacrificing Israeli citizens to stay in power as the extremist members of his coalition threatened to bring down the government once he ended the war.
Because of Netanyahu's stance, Tahani Mustafa, a senior Palestine analyst at Belgium-based think tank Crisis Group, thinks that Hamas no longer believes that keeping hostages gives it power over Israel.
"Hamas has taken the hostage issue out of the equation. It knows that this current Israeli administration is not interested in any kind of hostage release deal," Mustafa said. "I don’t think Hamas considers them as substantial playing cards any longer."
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