Israelis protest for deal as Hamas releases video of Gaza hostage

TEL AVIV

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.

"I have been a captive in Gaza for 450 days. My life has been on pause. Today marks the beginning of a new year. While the whole world is celebrating, we begin a dark year, a year of isolation,” Israeli captive Liri Albaj said in the undated and three-and-a-half-minute video recording

"We are not a priority for our government or our military. Even the world has started to forget about us and doesn’t care about our suffering,” the 19-year-old said.

"My companion here is critically injured due to the military's ongoing operations. We are living a terrifying nightmare. Our survival depends on the withdrawal of the military and them not reaching us,” she expressed.

Addressing the Israeli government, the captive questioned: "If it were your loved ones in captivity, would this war still be ongoing? I truly want to ask you: Do you want to kill us?"

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted, said the latest video was "firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home.”

Weekly demonstrations organized by the hostages forum, the latest scheduled in Tel Aviv on Jan. 4, have kept up the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a deal to free the hostages.

The prime minister's critics in Israel have accused him of stalling on a deal.

The video came after Israel and Hamas confirmed that the talks for a truce and hostage release deal resumed.

The Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during the 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.