Hamas released two disturbing videos on Sunday and Monday showing 26-year-old hostage Noa Argamani and two other hostages, teasing their “fate” and eventually claiming to show the two other hostages’ dead bodies.
The Palestinian terror group filmed the three hostages begging the Israeli government to stop its offensive against Hamas and ensure their release, the Sunday video showed.
The three hostages also identify themselves and tell the Israeli people, “Your government is lying.”
“Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate,” reads a chyron at the end of the 37-second video, which was not dated, so it is unclear when it was filmed.
Argamani became the face of the hostage crisis after footage showed her being dragged away from the Supernova music festival on a motorcycle. She can be heard screaming and crying to her boyfriend, who was also taken hostage.
The two other hostages who appear in the first video are Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38.
On Monday, a second video showed Argamani alive and possibly reading a script to the camera and saying that Sharabi and Svirsky had been killed by Israeli strikes, which also injured her.
The video claims to show the bodies of Sharabi and Svirsky at the end of the clip.
The hostage videos come after Hamas launched deadly terrorist attacks on Israel in October that killed more than 1,400 people, including children. Israel is now waging a massive counteroffensive on Hamas-controlled territory.
About 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas during the October attack. Around half of those people were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November, but 132 people remain held captive, according to Israel, and 25 people have died while held hostage.
Although some young women were released during the November ceasefire, Argamani was not one of them. The hostage video is the first time she and the other two hostages have been seen since their capture.
Argamani’s mother, Liora, is a Chinese citizen and has pleaded with both Israel and China to help rescue her daughter before she passes away from terminal brain cancer.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in December that he had reached out to China’s government on behalf of Argamani’s mother.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari challenged the claim that at least one of the hostages was killed by Israeli strikes.
“Itai was not shot by our forces. That is a Hamas lie. The building in which they were held was not a target and it was not attacked by our forces,” Hagari said.
However, Hagari said that the Israeli military had recently met with the families of the men and “expressed grave concern for their fate.”
“We are investigating the event and its circumstances, examining the images distributed by Hamas, alongside additional information at our disposal,” he said.