Hamas says two Israeli hostages are dead, as IDF calls videos ‘psychological torment’ of captives’ families

Israel said Monday that Hamas is carrying out “psychological torment” as the militant group released a third video in the space of 24 hours featuring the same three hostages being held in Gaza, the last of which appears to show two of the hostages dead.

“Hamas are hit badly by the IDF and all that is left for them is to bring psychological torment to the families [of the hostages], leaving the IDF to clarify things for the families later,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Monday.

The first video, released Sunday, showed clips of the three hostages – Noa Argamani, Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi - speaking to a camera. It ended with a caption saying, “Tomorrow, we will inform you of their fate.”

The third video, released later Monday, appeared to show the dead bodies of two of the hostages, Svirsky and Sharabi. It also featured Noa Argamani saying both men had been killed by Israeli bombing.

It is not clear if Argamani was speaking under duress. The video is also highly edited, with the adding of audio effects and the looping of some of her words.

“We do not strike in places where we know there may be hostages,” Hagari said. “In hindsight, we know we struck targets near to the location where they were being held. We are investigating the event and its circumstances, examining the images distributed by Hamas, alongside additional information at our disposal.”

The army spokesperson added that IDF representatives had met with the families of the three hostages and updated them on the latest information they had, adding the IDF “expressed grave concern” for the fate of two of the captives.

CNN is not airing the videos, and it is not immediately possible to verify when and where they were filmed.

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