Wearing a black T-shirt crossed out with the words “Kidnapped. Bring Liri Albag home now”, the father of this Israeli soldier, kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, addresses the “people of Israel”. His wife, on the verge of tears, is by his side. “We received a sign of life from Liri. We watched a video that was very painful to watch. This is not the Liri we know. »
On Saturday January 4, the armed wing of Hamas published a video of the 19-year-old young woman, impossible to date. We see her, for more than three minutes, speaking in Hebrew in front of the camera, against a black background, apparently in uniform. In this sequence, cut several times, notably when the young soldier seems overwhelmed by emotion, Liri Albag calls on her government to do everything to obtain her release. The soldier was kidnapped while serving at the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel, along with six other soldiers, five of whom are still held captive.
96 hostages in Gaza
This document, which testifies to the continued capacity for action of the Palestinian Islamist movement, was made public at the time when a new session of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas opened in Doha, Qatar, under the aegis of the emirate, Egypt and the United States. The hostage’s mother spoke directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him that “the Israeli delegation will not return without an agreement. » In Israel, the Families Forum discusses “(…) the urgency of bringing the hostages home”. On Saturday evening, several hundred demonstrators gathered in central Tel Aviv to demand a compromise.
Last December, discussions between the two parties broke down, among other things, on the establishment of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of the hostages. Since the start of the war, only a one-week truce has been observed, in November 2023, during which 105 hostages were released, as well as 240 Palestinian prisoners. During the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, 251 people were kidnapped. A total of 96 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
Strikes on Gaza continue
The talks come as Israel once again steps up its strikes on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas remains active. According to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN, at least 59 people were killed there in the space of 24 hours from Friday to Saturday. On Sunday January 5, 23 other people lost their lives in Israeli army bombings, according to the Palestinian authorities. For its part, the IDF claims to have targeted more than a hundred “terrorist targets”.
On Saturday, one of these strikes ravaged the al-Ghoula family home in Gaza City, killing 11 people, including seven children, according to Palestinian emergency services. Gaza Civil Defense also indicated that five security agents, responsible for escorting humanitarian convoys, were killed by an Israeli strike while they were driving in Khan Younes, in the south of the enclave. .
