Publicly questioned the day before by the wife of a hostage held captive in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian movement Hamas responded in a video on Saturday that the fate of her husband depended on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sharon Cunio spoke directly to Hamas on Friday to ask in a video message, in Arabic, for a sign of life from her husband, David, and to ask her captors to treat her with consideration. Herself kidnapped during the attack of the Islamist movement in Israel on October 7, 2023, she was released in the company of their 3-year-old twin daughters in November of the same year, during the only truce observed so far since the beginning of the war.
Hamas’ military wing responded that, since his release, Israeli “military pressure” had increased and that David was “either dead, injured or in good health.” “Netanyahu has not yet decided. Time is running out,” Hamas responded as indirect negotiations with Israel resumed last weekend in Qatar with a view to a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. That day, 251 people were kidnapped. Among them, 94 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
More than 46,000 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the Israeli military campaign of reprisals in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
