Hamas Releases Hostage Video of Two Slain Israeli Captives

Hamas on Wednesday released a video of two hostages, recorded before their deaths, whose bodies were among those recovered earlier this week by the Israeli military from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.

The video released on Wednesday included footage of Carmel Gat, 40, and Alexander Lobanov, 32. Hamas had released videos of two other hostages, on Monday and another on Tuesday. The release Wednesday ensures that the fate of the captives remains in the public eye.

All four were among six slain hostages who, according to autopsy reports released by the Israeli Ministry of Health, were shot at close range sometime between Thursday and Friday morning.

More than 60 living hostages, and the bodies of about 35 others taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli authorities. The publication of the video comes as international negotiators are trying to bring Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, to an agreement that would result in a cease-fire.

The status of the hostages and the government’s decision to press on with the war has rived Israeli society. Many people say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pursued the war at the expense of the hostages; he says that pursuing the war is the way to free the hostages.

In the days since the six bodies were discovered, many Israelis have taken world/israel-hamas-gaza-war” title=””>to the streets to protest the war. The protesters blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to reach a cease-fire agreement that would return the hostages to Israel. The release of the videos by Hamas appears to be designed to inflame those tensions inside Israel.

Rights groups and international law experts say that such hostage videos are, by definition, made under duress, that the statements in them are usually coerced and that making them can constitute a war crime. Israeli officials have called the videos a form of “psychological warfare.”

It was unclear where or exactly when the video released on Wednesday was filmed, and the footage appears to have been edited. The images of Ms. Gat, who turned 40 in captivity but gives her age as 39 in the video, and Mr. Lobanov were released on Hamas’s social media channels around 7 p.m. local time in Israel. The videos follow those of Eden Yerushalmi, 24, released on Monday, and of Ori Danino, 25, released on Tuesday.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of the captives, responded in a statement around midnight in Israel on Wednesday, calling the video of Ms. Gat and Mr. Lobanov “horrific” and “yet another testament to Hamas’s ruthless cruelty.” Recalling the other two recently released clips — of Ms. Yerushalmi and Mr. Danino — the forum said that more videos could come soon.

“Hamas has not only murdered and kidnapped innocent civilians but continues to inflict psychological terror on the families of hostages of the hostages through these calculated releases of distressing footage,” the group said.

Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military said that the shaft leading to the tunnel in which the bodies of the six hostages were found was located inside a children’s playground. The shaft, the military said, “was located next to stuffed animals and wall art of cartoon characters.” Images released by the Israeli military showed partly destroyed walls surrounding what appears to be a concrete tunnel shaft.

The walls are painted with figures, including one of Mickey Mouse, and a large red heart with the word “LOVE” in English written over it. A stuffed brown bear lies amid the rubble. Hamas tunnels have previously been discovered near civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools. The Israeli military and some Palestinians accuse the group of embedding fighters and hiding weapons among the civilian population.

Israeli troops found the shaft leading to the tunnel in an area the military said was “surrounded by the enemy and extensively booby-trapped,” arguing that “this is a further example of how Hamas abuses civilian areas to hold hostages and carry out its terrorist activities.”

Ms. Gat lived in Tel Aviv but was staying at her parents’ house in Be’eri, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, world/europe/beeri-massacre.html” title=””>when she was taken hostage on Oct. 7. Her mother, Kinneret Gat, was killed in the attacks.

“Carmel was an occupational therapist, full of compassion and love, always finding ways to support and help others,” the group that represents hostage families wrote in a post on social media on Sunday.

In a separate statement, the forum noted that hostages who were released in a temporary truce in November described Ms. Gat “as their guardian angel” who taught them meditation and yoga exercises “to survive captivity.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a profile of Ms. Gat in January, in which her closest friends said they had been holding regular yoga classes in her honor in an area of Tel Aviv that has become known as “Hostage Square.”

Mr. Lobanov lived in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, according to the forum, and was working as a bar manager at the Nova music festival when the attack began. Witnesses said Mr. Lobanov helped evacuate people, the forum said. He was a married father of two; his second child was born while he was in captivity.

In a post on social media on Wednesday, the forum recalled the six slain hostages as “young, beautiful and happy.” It added, “Six that will never dance again, nor will they ever hug, travel or love. Six who will forever live in our memory and may their memory be a blessing.”