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Israeli Hostage Forced to Say Fellow Captives Dead in Latest Hamas Video
An Israeli soldier walks near pictures that are part of an installation at the site of the Nova festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in Reim, southern Israel, Jan. 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
The Palestinian terror group Hamas on Monday released a new video of an Israeli hostage being forced to report that two of her fellow captives in Gaza have been killed.
The disturbing video featured 26-year-old Noa Argamani — who was filmed on now-viral video being abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel — saying that Itay Svirsky, 38, and Yossi Sharabi, 53, both of whom were kidnapped the same day by Hamas terrorists, are dead.
“I was located in a building,” Argamani said in the Hamas video, evidently under distress and seemingly reading a script in front of a blank white wall. “It was bombed by an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] air strike, an F16 fighter jet. Three rockets hit us — two of the rockets exploded, and one did not. We were in the building with Al Qassam [Hamas] soldiers and three hostages: myself, Itay Svirsky, and Yossef Sharabi.”
Argamani added that they were all buried in rubble after the building was hit. “Al Qassam soldiers saved my life and Itay’s,” she said. “Unfortunately, we were not able to save Yossi’s.”
“After many days … two nights, Itay and I were relocated to another place,” she continued. “While we were being transported, Itay was hit by an IDF airstrike. He did not survive.”
Argamani said she suffered a head injury during the ordeal before addressing Svirsky and Sharabi. “They died because of our own IDF airstrikes,” she said to conclude the video. “Stop this madness and bring us home to our families. While we are still alive, bring us home.”
The Algemeiner was unable to verify what had happened to the three hostages. However, Israel’s chief military spokesperson disputed some of Hamas’ claims, specifying that Svirsky was not killed by Israeli fire.
“Itay was not killed by our forces. This is a Hamas lie. The building where they were held was not a target and was not attacked by our forces,” said IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. “We don’t attack a place if we know there may be hostages inside.” Hagari noted that areas nearby had been targeted.
Still, Hagari said on Monday that there was serious concern about the fate of those purported to be dead in the video, adding that the Israeli military notified the families of two hostages held by Hamas in Gaza the Gaza Strip that it had concerns regarding their well-being. The IDF reportedly believes that Argamani is alive.
The video was the latest in what Israel has described as Hamas’ psychological warfare since the outbreak of war in October meant to cause distress in Israeli society and pressure Jerusalem to stop its military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel launched its offensive following the atrocities of Oct. 7 — when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others as hostages — with the stated aim of freeing the hostages and incapacitating Hamas as a threat.
Monday’s video followed a previous Hamas production from the prior day, when the terror group released chilling footage featuring undated, edited-together clips of Argamani, Svirsky, and Sharabi identifying themselves to the camera, describing their plight, and asking to go home.
The 37-second clip, which marked 100 days since the hostages’ abduction, ended with the chyron: “Tomorrow [Monday] we will inform you of their fate.”
Hamas then teased in a follow-up video, released earlier on Monday, that the three hostages could either be killed, injured or spared, asking viewers for their opinions. The video — which preceded the latest one of Argamani reporting her fellow captives’ deaths — showed the three hostages’ faces.
“What do you think?” the Palestinian terrorists said of the captives. Hamas then offered three options for the innocent victims: all three are killed; “some are killed, some are injured,” or all three are spared.
It ended with the message: “Tonight we will inform you of their fate.”
Argamani became widely known after footage was shown of her being kidnapped at the Nova music festival alongside her boyfriend, Avinatan Or. They were last seen being taken away by terrorists on a motorcycle from the festival where 364 civilians were killed and 40 abducted as hostages.
Argamani’s mother, Liora, has terminal cancer and has made pleas in international forums calling for her daughter’s release.
Svirsky was visiting Kibbutz Beeri on the day of the Oct. 7 massacre when he was kidnapped. His parents, Orit and Rafi, were among the 130 residents of the Gaza border town murdered by terrorists that day.
Sharabi was also taken hostage from Kibbutz Beeri alongside his brother and their 18-year-old family member Ofir, who was released during a temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire in November.
Hamas is still holding over 130 hostages, according to the Israeli government, with some believed to have been killed by the terrorists in captivity. Over 100 captives were released as part of a temporary Israel-Hamas truce in late November.
The Iran-backed terror group said on Sunday that it had lost contact with some hostages as Israel continued its military campaign in Gaza.
“The fate of many of the enemy’s hostages and detainees has become unknown in recent weeks and the rest are all in the tunnel of the unknown due to the Zionist aggression,” Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida said in a televised statement. “Most likely, many of them were killed recently, the rest are in great danger every hour, and the enemy’s leadership and army bear full responsibility.”
The post Israeli Hostage Forced to Say Fellow Captives Dead in Latest Hamas Video first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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