Hamas releases video of Israeli hostage Liri Albag as ceasefire talks resume
2025-01-05
Category: news

Hamas has posted a video showing a 19-year-old Israeli captive, as indirect talks between the group and Israel on a ceasefire and hostage release deal resume in Qatar.The footage shows Liri Albag calling for the Israeli government to reach a deal.She was taken hostage along with six other female conscript soldiers at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during Hamas's October 2023 attack. Five of them remain in captivity.The announcement of renewed talks came as Israel intensified attacks on Gaza, with the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry saying on Sunday that 88 people had been killed in bombardment over the past 24 hours.
One strike on a home in Gaza City on Saturday killed 11 people including seven children, according to the Gaza civil defence agency.Images showed residents searching through rubble for survivors and the bodies of the dead wrapped in shrouds."A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking," neighbour Ahmed Mussa told AFP."It was home to children, women. There wasn't anyone wanted or who posed a threat."The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had struck more than 100 "terror targets" in the Gaza Strip over the past two days and "eliminated dozens of Hamas terrorists".Responding to the video showing their daughter, Liri Albag's parents said it had torn their hearts to pieces and they appealed to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "make decisions as if your own children were there".The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters, which represents hostage families, said the sign of life from Liri was "harsh and undeniable proof of the urgency in bringing all the hostages home".In a call to Lira Albag's parents, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country's delegation would remain at the negotiating table until all hostages were returned home.Israeli officials have previously described the release of such videos by Hamas as psychological warfare.Last month a senior Palestinian official told the BBC that talks to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal were mostly complete, but key issues still needed to be bridged.
On Sunday the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, the latest in a series of such attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi movement.The Houthis said they had fired a "hypersonic ballistic missile" towards a power station near the Israeli city of Haifa. The group says it began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and firing projectiles at Israel in response to Israeli military actions in Gaza.The current war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel's military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed more than 45,800 people, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.On Saturday the Gaza health ministry said all three government hospitals in northern Gaza were completely out of service and "destroyed" by the Israeli military.The Israeli military has imposed a blockade on parts of northern Gaza since October, with the UN saying the area has been under "near-total siege" as Israeli forces heavily restrict access of aid deliveries to an area where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people remain.Late last month the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, alleging the facility was a "Hamas terrorist stronghold" and arresting the hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya.It said it had facilitated the transfer of some medical staff and patients to the Indonesian hospital nearby. But the Gaza health ministry said on Saturday that that hospital had also been taken out of service, along with the hospital in Beit Hanoun.World Health Organisation chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus again called for an end to attacks on hospitals and health professionals. "People in Gaza need access to health care," he said.Israel says its forces operate in accordance with international law and do not target civilians.On Saturday the Biden administration said it was planning an $8bn (£6.4bn) arms sale to Israel. The weapons consignment, which needs approval from US House and Senate committees, includes missiles, shells and other munitions.The move comes just over a fortnight before Biden leaves office and Donald Trump takes over as president.Washington has consistently rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed in Gaza.