Hamas aired a new video on Monday showing what it said were the bodies of two Israeli hostages, and Israel’s military said that while it was examining the footage, there was serious concern regarding the hostages’ fate.
In the video, 26-year-old university student Noa Argamani, seemingly reading a script in front of a blank white wall, said that fellow hostages Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi had been killed.
The video ends with pictures purporting to be the dead bodies of both men.
Aragamani said in the video that they were killed by Israeli strikes, while she was injured.
Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari identified hostage Itai Svirsky as one of the men, but did not give the name or other details about the second as per the family’s request.
“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 told reporters.
“We don’t attack a place if we know there may be hostages inside,” he said, adding that areas nearby had been targeted. The military, he said, was examining the photos Hamas posted along with other information it had.
Argamani became a prominent face among the more than 200 hostages taken during Hamas’ October 7 massacre across southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
She attended the music festival that became a killing field and was filmed by her captors being taken into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, screaming for her life and reaching for her boyfriend who was being pushed on foot beside her.
“Stop this madness, return us to our families while we are still alive. Return us home,” she said in Monday’s video.
Sharabi, 53, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Beeri, one of the hardest hit communities in the Hamas assault, along with his brother. His wife managed to save their daughters while his brother’s family was killed.