₦airaland Forum

The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has published a video of an Israeli-German hostage who was abducted and taken to Gaza in October 2023 during the attack that sparked the war in the territory.

In the six-minute video, the man, Rom Braslavski, speaking in Hebrew, is seen watching recent news footage of the hunger crisis in Gaza. He identifies himself and pleads with the Israeli government to secure his release.

AFP was not immediately able to confirm the authenticity of the video nor the date it was filmed, but an organisation representing hostages' families identified the man as Braslavski, 21, a German-Israeli dual national.

Islamic Jihad, which said last week it had lost contact with the hostage, repeated that claim in commentary at the beginning of the latest video, suggesting the images were filmed more than a week ago.

A previous video of Braslavski was released on April 16.

Originally from Jerusalem, Braslavski was a security agent at the Nova music festival, one of the sites attacked in October 2023 by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters, including members of Islamic Jihad.

The footage, distributed by a movement considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, shows the young man watching an Arabic-language television channel broadcasting a report on hunger in Gaza.

"They managed to break Rom. Even the strongest person has a breaking point," his family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

"Rom is an example of all the hostages. They must all be brought home now."

Before his abduction[b], Braslavski rescued several festival-goers[/b], according to witnesses who managed to escape.

Of the 251 people taken from Israel that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army.

Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza since the kidnappings, but a truce from January 19 to March 17 allowed the return of 33 hostages to Israel, eight of them dead, in exchange for the release of approximately 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli jails.

Others were released under a previous truce in 2023.

Botragelad:
Islamists are doing what they do best, parading and mocking hostages. Yet some countries and idealists still push for a Palestinian state. After all this, does anyone really expect Israel to willingly create and hand over a state to terrorists?

Hamas and their Islamic jihad group cling to the hostages because it’s their last desperate shield. But in the end, when Israel finishes this, we’ll see who the biggest losers are.

P1PrinceKT:
Why in the first place Israel create and handover what is not thiers? Have you ever seen one Israeli that doesn't have any other citizenship? The land is already for the terrorist as you called them. No apologies!

P1PrinceKT:
Why in the first place Israel create and handover what is not thiers? Have you ever seen one Israeli that doesn't have any other citizenship? The land is already for the terrorist as you called them. No apologies!

joeyswift:
I trust Israel, nothing will make them hand over a state to Palestine terrorists. Shebi hamas eye don clear,they are now begging their Arab brothers to negotiate for them. After Isreal knack Iran wotowoto, Iran don calm down. Where are the people celebrating the Oct 7 massacre? They don even have a street anymore in gaza let alone celebrate.

Botragelad:
Learn how to express yourself properly! You don't expect anyone to understand this trash. Do you?

Botragelad:
Learn how to express yourself properly! You don't expect anyone to understand this trash. Do you?

Botragelad:
Islamists are doing what they do best, parading and mocking hostages. Yet some countries and idealists still push for a Palestinian state. After all this, does anyone really expect Israel to willingly create and hand over a state to terrorists?

Hamas and their Islamic jihad group cling to the hostages because it’s their last desperate shield. But in the end, when Israel finishes this, we’ll see who the biggest losers are.

Taquin:
I will never understand Christians support for gazans especially in this conflict. How do you start a war with me and you dictate how I should pay you back. O wrong. I will take as much pound of flesh as I want. Barbaric anywhere in the world.

Botragelad:
Learn how to express yourself properly! You don't expect anyone to understand this trash. Do you?