Hamas militants on Friday released a video showing three Israeli women who had been kept hostage in Gaza since the October 7 incident.
Two of the women in the five-minute video identified themselves as Israeli soldiers, with the third claiming to be a civilian.
The three women were identified by AFP using official and community sources.
The women claimed they had been jailed for 107 days, implying the video was shot on Sunday.
The video surfaced online shortly after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the militants to release all the people they abducted during their invasion of Israeli territory last October.
ICJ President, Joan Donoghue said the continual abduction of people captured by Hamas militants was no longer justifiable and ordered that all of them should be released immediately and without any conditions.
“The order then states that the court deems it necessary to emphasize that all parties to the conflict in the Gaza Strip are bound by international humanitarian law. It is gravely concerned about the fate of the hostages abducted during the attack in Israel on 7 October 2023 and held since then. By Hamas and other armed groups and calls for their immediate and unconditional release,” the ICJ ruled.
Militants also grabbed some 250 hostages, and Israel claims around 132 of them are still in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 deceased captives.
According to the Hamas government’s health ministry, Israeli bombardments and military offensives have killed at least 26,083 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since then, with around 70% of them being women, young children, and teenagers.
