Image source, HOSTAGE VIDEO
Hamas has published a video showing the first proof of life of two more hostages being held in Gaza, Keith Siegel and Omri Miran.
In the undated footage, Mr Miran says he has been held captive for 202 days and Mr Siegel mentions the Passover holiday, suggesting the clips were filmed recently.
Mr Siegel, a US citizen, was kidnapped with his wife Aviva on 7 October.
She was freed in November during a brief truce.
Earlier this month, she told the BBC how the couple had at one point been left in a tunnel by their captors as they were moved from place to place.
At the time, she said, she did not know if Keith was still alive.
The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said the Siegel and Miran families were aware of the latest video.
It said the proof the two were alive was “the clearest evidence that the Israeli government must do everything to approve a deal for the return of all the hostages”.
It follows another proof-of-life video the group released earlier this week, showing Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who is shown without his lower left arm in the short clip. It was blown off during Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel.
In response, his mother and father appealed for more to be done to secure a new hostage release deal.
The Siegels were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October when Hamas attacked Israeli communities near Gaza, while Mr Miran was taken captive from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Speaking under duress in the video released by the armed wing of Hamas, Mr Siegel, 64, and Mr Miran, 46, urge the Israeli government to agree a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
“I have been here in Hamas captivity for 202 days. The situation here is unpleasant, difficult and there are many bombs,” Mr Miran is heard saying.
The new video comes as Hamas said it was studying Israel’s latest proposal for a truce. Media reports said mediator Egypt had sent a delegation to Israel to give fresh impetus to stalled negotiations.
Weeks of indirect negotiations have failed to produce an agreement. Hamas rejected a previous proposal for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of 40 of the remaining hostages.
The group has previously insisted that any deal should include a permanent end to the war, full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and unrestricted return of displaced people to their homes. Israel insists it must destroy Hamas in Gaza and free the hostages.
Israel appears to be moving ahead with plans for an offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite warnings of the potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences for the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians sheltering there.
The Hamas attacks killed about 1,200 people and the group took some 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, the Hamas-run health ministry there says.
A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages – most of them women and children – in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Some 133 hostages are believed still to be in Gaza of whom about 30 are thought to be dead.
