This Saturday afternoon Hamas released a new propaganda video in which we see two hostages: Keith Siegel, an American citizen, and Omri Miron. Like hostage Hersh Kohlberg-Bolin, who appeared in a Hamas film last April 24, the two plead for demonstrations to topple the Netanyahu government in this highly scripted film. They say they have “seen” movements to free hostages in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and urge protesters to “continue”: “Only under pressure, the government will make a deal with Hamas,” they plead, probably dictating.
In the video, the two talk about the Passover holiday and express hope that they will return home for Independence Day (Yom Hatzmat) on May 13. Omri Miron says he has been in custody for 202 days, which, according to the count, would have been recorded last Thursday.
“The signs in the lives of Keith Segal and Omri Miron are clear evidence that the Israeli government must do everything possible to reach an agreement to allow the return of all hostages before Independence Day,” commented the Hostage Families Forum. “It is to allow the prisoners who are still alive to rebuild their lives and to bury those killed with dignity.”
133 hostages are still in Gaza, in the hands of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Only 95 of them are “presumed alive”. But according to many analysts, this number may be much lower. A deal now in the hands of Hamas provides for the first phase of the release of 33 female hostages, soldiers, the elderly and the sick, in return for a freeze on Israeli operations in Rafah.
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