• A Hamas video released on January 15th claims that 2 Israelis have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
• Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, denies these claims calling it “psychological abuse”
On January 15th Hamas aired a video purporting to show the bodies of two Israeli hostages. The hostages, identified as Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi, were killed in Israeli strikes according to a scripted statement delivered by 26 year old Noa Argamani. This information along with the 3 Israeli hostages (Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26) that were killed by the IDF mistakenly, seriously questions Israel’s intentions in this war. Is it to end Hamas? Is it to rescue hostages? We don’t know and it seems the IDF doesn’t know either.
However, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari strongly denied Hamas’ claims. Hagari identified Itai Svirsky as one of the hostages and denied that he was killed in Israeli airstrikes but refrained from disclosing details about the second individual at the family’s request. Hagari claimed that the building in which they were held was not a target and had not been attacked by Israeli forces. Hagari emphasized that Israel avoids attacking places when there is a possibility of hostages being inside. These claims seem to be contradictory as it seems they already know where the hostages are and they already know where Hamas hides out. Yet still the death toll of Palestinian civilians are still increasing daily despite their knowledge of the whereabouts of their “objectives” (Hamas and the hostages).
The three Israelis were shown in a Hamas video on January 14th in which the group urged the Israeli government to halt its aerial and ground offensive and bring about their release. It ended with the caption, “Tomorrow (January 15th) we will inform you of their fate.” Noa Argamani, who became a recognizable figure for some in Israel, pleaded for the release of the remaining captives in the video. She insisted that the hostages be returned home while they are still alive. Approximately half of the 240 people seized by Hamas were released in a November truce, but 132 hostages remain in Gaza, with 25 reported dead in captivity.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant condemned Hamas for its “psychological abuse” in handling the hostages. He emphasized that maintaining military pressure on Hamas is crucial for securing the release of more hostages. Gallant argued that without such pressure, Hamas would have no incentive to engage in negotiations. However, this is yet again contradictory as it was the Israeli side which promoted a website by the name of “Hamas.com” which was proven not to be Hamas’ official website.
The website has been widely shared by the State of Israel’s Twitter account and by other officials such as the Israeli government spokesperson. However, this website was not created by Hamas. The strangest thing is that only pro-Israeli accounts were sharing this alleged ‘official website’ not accounts close to Hamas. Moreover, the content on the website is not in line with Hamas’s official statements. The website proudly boasts the death of civilians since the attack carried out on 7 October. But the group’s leaders still to this day refuse to acknowledge the killing of innocent people in Israel. In the section explaining the group’s goals claims that all “non-Muslims are viewed as infidels and targets for assassination” and that Hamas’s goal was to use “deceptive narratives” in order to “overthrow secular governments,”. This is clearly a very odd way for Hamas to describe themselves and it is easy to tell that this website is “psychological abuse”.
