Hamas Releases Proof-of-Life Video of Two Israeli Hostages Amid Escalating Conflict

In a chilling development amid the ongoing Gaza conflict, Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in captivity. The clip, lasting over two minutes, shows the men seated close together, speaking directly to the camera and describing how they survived an alleged Israeli airstrike.

One of the hostages has been identified as Maxim Herkin, confirmed by his family through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Israeli media named the second hostage as Bar Kuperstein, a soldier from Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The Herkin family has requested that the video not be publicly shared.

Both men were abducted during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel at the Nova music festival, an event that sparked the ongoing Gaza war. Herkin, 35 at the time, is a dual Israeli-Russian citizen who had emigrated from Ukraine. He had texted his mother just before being taken: “All is well. I’m coming home.” Kuperstein, 21, was reportedly working as part of the festival staff and not on military duty at the time of his capture.

In the video, Herkin appears injured, with his right cheek and hand bandaged, speaking under visible duress. The release comes just a day after the Israeli army launched a new ground offensive in Shujaiya, a district in Gaza City, in a bid to expand the so-called “security zone” inside the strip.

Hamas has warned that Israeli operations are endangering the lives of remaining hostages. According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, at least 29 Palestinians were killed on Saturday alone across various regions.

Currently, 58 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the Israeli military presumes dead. A previous six-week ceasefire saw the release of 33 hostages, eight of them deceased.

The October 7 attack killed 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians. In response, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has led to over 50,669 deaths, primarily civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, figures the United Nations deems credible.