"Kassam Brigades," the military wing of Hamas, released a new video showing an Israeli captive inside a tunnel in Gaza Strip, with visible injuries on his head, eye, and arm, covered with bandages and bloodstains.
The captive, who only identified himself as "Prisoner No. 24," talked 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 "Ynet" suggested that the man in the footage is Maxim Kharkiv, an Israeli citizen of Ukrainian origin from the Donetsk region.
The first scenes featuring Kharkiv date back to April 5th in a previous video 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 251 abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack, with the Israeli army confirming the death of 34 of them.
In a controversial statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered "victory over Hamas" a higher priority than rescuing the hostages.
This stance was 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 political, military, and humanitarian complexities 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 delicate issue.
Will the coming days witness a real breakthrough or further escalation?