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By Tom O'Connor
Deputy Editor, National Security and Foreign Policy
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Hamas has warned in a new video that Israeli strikes will kill additional hostages as the group's military wing reported losing contact with a United States national being held by the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.
The video, released Tuesday, contains footage of Hamas fighters carrying black coffins marked with the names and images of slain hostages, bearing a warning addressed directly to the families of the 59 captives still held by the group since its October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the ongoing war.
"Dear families of the prisoners, be prepared, soon your children will return in black coffins, with their bodies torn by the shrapnel of your army's missiles," Hamas' message read in the clip. "Prepare their burial places now. Your leadership has signed the decision to execute the prisoners in the Gaza Strip. Wait and you will see..."
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Newsweek reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum declined to "respond to or acknowledge this Hamas propaganda."
"This is yet another disturbing video designed to inflict emotional pain on the families of hostages who have been held captive by this terrorist organization for 557 days," the spokesperson told Newsweek. "We do not consider any statements from Hamas to be credible."
The clip was circulated the same day as Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades military spokesperson Abu Obeida announced that the group had lost contact with one of its teams holding dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander, "following a direct bombardment targeting their location."
"It seems that the occupation army is deliberately trying to kill him and hence relieve itself from the pressure caused by the dual-citizen prisoners in order to continue its genocide against our people," Abu Obeida said.
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Why This Matters
After a two-month reprieve beginning with a phase-one ceasefire deal reached on the eve of President Donald Trump's inauguration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed full-scale operations in Gaza on March 18. The truce unraveled as Israel demanded an extension of the first phase of the deal, while Hamas called for talks to advance to the second phase, aimed at bringing a lasting end to hostilities.
Trump has not opposed the Israeli premier's decision to return to war, though he did express his desire for the "war to stop" in the not "too distant future" during his latest meeting with Netanyahu at the White House last week.
Meanwhile, protests have continued to erupt in Israel, calling on the government to do more to secure the release of the remaining hostages. Hamas has also faced some rare demonstrations calling for an end to the war.
Israeli officials have indicated that they were working on a new agreement to release 10 additional living hostages, an effort confirmed Monday by Netanyahu.
What To Know
Some 251 people were taken captive by Hamas during its October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Most of the hostages released, both living and dead, were transferred during two separate, short-lived ceasefire agreements reached in November 2023 and in January of this year.
Of the remaining 59 captives, around 24 are still believed to be alive. Six U.S. citizens are among those still held prisoner by Hamas in Gaza.
The IDF has at times accused Hamas of directly executing hostages, challenging the group's claims that Israeli operations killed them. The IDF acknowledged at least one instance in December 2023 when an Israeli airstrike killed three hostages who had fled their captors in Gaza.
Last week, an Israeli military official told Newsweek that "we keep updating the way we operate all the time to make sure that we're not endangering the hostages in our operations because our goal is to free the hostages and to bring them home, as many of them as we can."
"And we keep learning and gathering more information and making our operations more accurate to achieve both of our goals, which is very difficult in the current situation in Gaza," the Israeli military official added. "But we're doing our best to improve on that."
The Palestinian Health Ministry based in Gaza has recorded the deaths of around 51,000 people since the war began. More than 1,000 have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in the past weeks since the collapse of the ceasefire.
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What People Are Saying
Hamas, in a statement Tuesday: "For the 7th consecutive week, the fascist occupation government has been preventing the entry of all life-saving necessities, including food and medical supplies, and fuel, into the Gaza Strip. Additionally, it has targeted water wells and desalination plants, obstructed relief operations, and disrupted food distribution centers."
"This catastrophic reality, imposed by the occupation government on a 2.2-million population, who are subjected to daily systemic massacres, is an integral part of a planned genocide being committed amid a deafening global silence.
"We call on the UN and the international community to assume their humanitarian and legal responsibilities and take immediate and serious actions to compel the occupation to stop the policy of collective starvation, guarantee the entry of humanitarian, food, and medical supplies into Gaza, and reconsider the international laws and conventions' system that is being violated daily by the government of war criminal Netanyahu."
"We also renew our call to the governments, peoples, and parties of our Arab and Islamic nations to take a historic position that ends the unjust siege imposed on Gaza. We also stress that the global solidarity activism must intensify and match the scale of Zionist atrocities committed against our people."
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon responding to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' call for an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday: "The UN Secretary-General has no problem explicitly condemning Israel's defensive war in Gaza and unequivocally calling for a ceasefire. Yet his statements, once again, fail to mention the hostages and fail to mention Hamas, whose barbaric actions on October 7 2023, triggered this war.
"This war Hamas started will not be over until all of our remaining 59 hostages are returned home from brutal captivity."
Israeli Missing and Families Hostage Forum, in a statement on Monday: "While the families wait hopefully and would welcome the release of any hostage from Hamas captivity, we continue to call for a comprehensive deal that will return ALL hostages immediately.
"Every additional day in captivity endangers the lives of those still being held by Hamas terrorists, who are subjecting them to horrific conditions including starvation, physical abuse, and confinement in darkness. We urge the obvious, possible, and appropriate solution: end the war and return all the hostages, the living and the dead, immediately."
What Happens Next
Netanyahu has consistently voiced his determination to continue the war until all three of his objectives were met: the return of all hostages, the neutralization of Hamas as a military and political entity and the rendering of Gaza incapable of posing a future threat to Israel.
But he has faced growing internal pressure on several fronts, including protests led by hostage families and clashes with officials, including the head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency and the country's attorney general, who have voiced increasingly critical views of Netanyahu.
Trump's view may also prove crucial to the course of the war. Thus far, he and Netanyahu have largely aligned on the U.S. leader's plan for the voluntary resettlement of Gaza's people to pursue development opportunities in the war-torn territory. However, Trump has also signaled his desire to see the conflict end in a timely manner, a central theme of the campaign that won him a second presidential term.
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