Al-Qassam Brigades publish footage of an injured Israeli captive inside a tunnel in Gaza.

In a significant development in the file of prisoners and hostages, the military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, released a new video showing an Israeli captive inside a tunnel in Gaza, visibly displaying injuries to his head, eye, and arm, with bandages covering these areas and bloodstains visible. The captive, who only identified himself as "Prisoner Number 24," spoke about surviving two Israeli airstrikes, the first after the military operations resumed in mid-March, and the second when the tunnel he was held in was bombed again. Although the video did not specify the timing or location of the recording, the Israeli site "Walla News" suggested that the man in the footage is Maxim Kharkiv, an Israeli citizen of Ukrainian origin from the Donbass region. The first scenes featuring Kharkiv date back to April 5th in a previous clip broadcasted by Hamas, where he appeared with another hostage, reportedly also an Israeli citizen according to Israeli media. The recorded footage comes amid increasing complexity in the hostage file, with 58 Israelis still detained in Gaza out of the 251 abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack, with the Israeli army confirming that 34 of them have died. In a controversial statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered "victory over Hamas" to be a higher priority than the release of hostages. This stance is also supported by Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who stated in a radio interview that the release of prisoners is not a top priority for the current government. This scene reveals the complexity of the political, military, and humanitarian equation in Gaza, raising growing questions about the fate of the remaining hostages amidst ongoing airstrikes and escalation, amid internal and external pressures on Israel to resolve this challenging issue. Will the coming days witness a real breakthrough or further escalation?