The Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a new video clip of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov on Friday morning, two days after the broadcast of another video. It is unknown at this stage whether these are two extracts from the same video or two separate videos potentially filmed on different dates.
In this extract, the young man, identified on Wednesday in the video by his relatives, addresses Arié Dery, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shass party, a member of the government coalition, so that he contributes to his release and that of others hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
Within the Netanyahu government, the Shas party favors an agreement for the release of hostages in the name of the Jewish religious obligation to do everything possible to free captives. In September, Arié Dery called bringing back the hostages a “sacred duty”.
This is the fourth video clip released by Islamic Jihad of Sacha Trupanov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli, kidnapped with his partner Sapir Cohen, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where the couple was visiting the young man’s family.
Sapir Cohen, along with Sacha Trupanov’s mother and grandmother, were released during the only truce in the war triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The hostage’s father, Vitali Trupanov, was killed that day.
The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called on Friday morning, before the video was broadcast, for “the immediate and unconditional release of civilians held in captivity by Palestinian groups and as a priority our compatriots A. Trupanov and Mr. Herkin.” Maxim Herkin, a 35-year-old Israeli-Russian, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival.
During the unprecedented deadly attack by Hamas commandos on October 7, 2023, 251 people were kidnapped on Israeli soil. A total of 97 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
