Hamas’s military wing released a video on Saturday of Liri Albag, one of about 250 people the group took hostage in its attack on Israel, as Israeli and Hamas officials held further rounds of indirect ceasefire talks brokered in Qatar.
About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza nearly 15 months since Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 sparked Israel’s war on Gaza. Negotiations for their release have stalled since a one-week truce in November 2023 that allowed the release of 105 Israeli and foreign prisoners.
Ms. Albag, 19, served in an observer unit tasked with monitoring potential threats along the Gaza border. During a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, Palestinian fighters seized the military base where she served, killing more than 60 soldiers and abducting Ms Albag and six other female soldiers.
The video released on Saturday was edited and shows Ms. Albag speaking for about three and a half minutes. Mrs. Albag said that she was detained for more than 450 days, but this could not be definitively confirmed.
In a statement, Ms Albag’s family said “her severe psychological distress is evident” in the video, and the footage “tears our hearts to pieces.” They asked leaders to “make decisions as if your own children were there.”
“She is only tens of kilometers away from us, but we have not been able to bring her home for 456 days,” said the family.
Human rights groups have he said Hamas’s practice of making and releasing videos of hostages was inhumane and could amount to a war crime. Israeli officials have labeled this practice a form of psychological warfare.
Both sides are under pressure from the new Trump administration to reach agreements on a ceasefire and the release of hostages as soon as possible. President-elect Donald J. Trump has warned that there will be “ALL HELL” unless the hostages are freed by his inauguration on January 20.
But Mr. Trump did not detail how he would break the deadlock between Israel and Hamas. Both sides have made seemingly irreconcilable demands in months of negotiations, thwarting numerous diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration.
On Friday night, Hamas said its officials were continuing meetings in the Qatari capital Doha to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel and release the hostages. In a statement, the group reiterated its longstanding demands that Israel end the war and withdraw from Gaza.
Israel said earlier this week it was also sending a delegation of senior security officials to meet with mediators in Qatar. But it is not clear whether Israeli leaders are willing to meet Hamas’s terms. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that the war will not end until Hamas is destroyed in Gaza.
Families of Israeli hostages fear that every day in captivity could be their last. Following the release of the video featuring Ms. Albag, the headquarters of the Hostage Families Forum, an advocacy group, called on both sides to meet the deadline of Mr. Trump.
“Every day in Hamas’s hell in Gaza is an imminent threat of death for living hostages,” the group said in a statement. “Sixteen days remain until the ultimatum set by the newly elected President Trump. We must not lose this historic opportunity.”
Israel continued its military campaign in Gaza on Saturday. The enclave’s civil defense, a rescue agency under the Hamas-run interior ministry, reported multiple airstrikes that killed at least 11 people and left more than 20 missing under rubble across the enclave. In its totals, the Agency does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
