The military wing of Hamas on Saturday claimed that three elderly Israelis were among five hostages allegedly killed in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.
The terrorist group claimed that five hostages – including Israel Chaim Peri, Yoram Metsger, and Amiram Cooper – were killed since contact was lost with Hamas members tasked with guarding them, Al-Qassam Brigades posted on Telegram.
Two additional hostages were not named in the post.
Peri, 79, Metzger, 80, and 84-year-old Cooper were all abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 massacre.
Earlier this week, the men appeared together in a disturbing video shared by Hamas on social media.
In the footage, the three Israelis, all with untrimmed beards after 10 weeks in captivity, are seen sitting side by side facing the camera.
The group “suffered a lot in very bad conditions,” Peri said in the recording.
Chaim Peri, Yoram Metsger and Amiram Cooper were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. Getty Images
He appealed to Israel for their release.
Israel later denounced the brutal clip as a “criminal, terrorist video” that showed “Hamas’ brutality against very old civilians, innocent people in need of medical treatment.”
Peri – a film lecturer and activist – was abducted from his home on the kibbutz while trying to shelter his wife behind a sofa, his family told media.
The bodies of Palestinians killed in Gaza on Saturday. Getty Images Chaim Peri, Yoram Metsger, and Amiram Cooper were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. HAMAS via REUTERS
He eventually handed himself over to Hamas insurgents to ensure he remained hidden, they said.
“He doesn’t look good, to tell the truth. He looked thin and tired and not himself,” Peri’s daughter, Noam Peri, told PBS News Hour after seeing her father in the terrorist video.
“He looks sad. It is difficult. It’s hard to see him like this,” she lamented, adding that she believed her father was speaking in his “own words” in the video.
Two women mourn amid Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Getty Images
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Metzger was kidnapped along with his wife, Tamar Metzger, 78, who was released in mid-November, the Times of Israel reported.
Metzger has diabetes and still has limited mobility from a broken hip, his family told the outlet.
“It was a momentary joy to see them alive. It’s shocking to see them like this, with their beards growing, having lost weight and looking weak and pale,” his daughter-in-law Ayala Metzger said this week in a Hamas video.
Cooper, an economist, was one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz, and was also kidnapped along with his wife, Nurit, the Times of Israel said.
After Nurit was released on October 23, she told her family about their horrific abduction.
During the first week of their captivity, the Coopers were kept with five other kibbutz members, their son later explained. Their place of detention was so dark and dim that it was impossible to tell whether it was day or night, he said.
Hamas’s claim that the three men were killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip comes less than two weeks after the Israel Defense Forces admitted that they mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages while on patrol in Gaza City.
Gaza has been the subject of retaliatory bombing by Israel since Oct. 7.
The massive military effort is believed to have killed about 20,000 people, according to unconfirmed reports by the Hamas-linked health ministry in the area.
Hamas does not differentiate between the deaths of civilians and the deaths of its fighters.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
