Hamas releases video of three Israeli hostages held in Gaza

Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video on Friday showing three Israeli women held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attack.

Two of the women who appeared in the five-minute video said they were Israeli soldiers, and the third said she was a civilian.

The women said they had been detained for 107 days, suggesting the video may have been filmed on Sunday.

The release of the video came shortly after a ruling by the UN’s top court that Israel should do everything it can to prevent any acts of genocide in Gaza.

The court called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages who were abducted during the October 7 attack.

The unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.

At least 26,083 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli bombardments and ground offensive since then, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.