Video shows US and Israeli hostages alive in Gaza | BBC News

hello and welcome to BBC News I'm laqua buak and we start the program in the Middle East where Israel's foreign minister has said a planned ground assault on the southern Gaza City of refa could be suspended if a deal emerges to free the hostages still being held by Hamas Israel cats said that their freedom was a top priority hostage release also forms a key part of international mediation efforts to bring about a ceasefire in the Gaza War Hamas has posted a new video which shows two of the hostages captured during its October attack Keith seagull and omry Miran both identify themselves in the video whilst it's not dated there is a reference to the recent Passover holiday it's the second such video that Hamas considered a terror group by the UK and US governments has published in the past few days our correspondent Anna Foster sent us this update from T Aviv rry Moran's father was actually already on the list of confirmed speakers for this event tonight when he got up on the stage he talked about the moment he said he was sitting having coffee with someone and talking about his grandchild when the man that he was talking to held his phone and said look here's a phot a video they've released a video of omry now what was also interesting as the crowd were gathered here tonight is they showed that video in full it's not something that that normally happens because of course when you see the people in it the two men in this case looking very malnourished obviously speaking under Jess sending messages to their families and and urging the Israeli government to come to some sort of arrangement some sort of deal to try and achieve their release now of course that deal and those talks have been going on for weeks and weeks now the last time we saw a significant hostage release was at the end of last year at at one point we were told the talks had really very much broken down the two sides weren't really in communic at all but the Egyptian delegations visit this week and the further um efforts of the US and the US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin we're sort of led to believe the briefings are that perhaps they're moving slightly closer in terms of trying to achieve a deal but certainly those powerful messages that we heard on the stage tonight from the hostage families they were talking directly to Israel's leaders directly to the politicians and they were saying you need to do a deal while they're still alive while we know that our loved ones are still alive you need to do what they can to ensure their release now and that was Anna Foster there the US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin is set to travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday as negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain in limbo this will be his seventh trip to the Middle East since the War Began it's part of President Biden's efforts to encourage a ceasefire and prevent the conflict from spreading he'll also call for the release of those hostages from the October the 7th attack back Muhammad Taha is from the BBC Arabic service and he spoke to me earlier for more on those fragile hostage negotiations both parties are putting massive amount of pressures on the each party to accept the the hostage deal with without massive amount of conditions so the Israel is putting pressure they are uh intensifying the military operation they are threatening of starting the operation in Rafa overnight we saw 30 people died in shelling in Middle Gaza and in RAF 10 of them are children Israel believes that only military pressure on Hamas would make them accept the hostage hostage deal on the other side we saw Hamas releasing these uh host hostage videos that urging uh the Israeli government to accept the uh that that deal and I heard a clip of Hamas official saying that Israel want them voluntarily to hand back the hostages voluntarily to accept Israel continuing occupying Gaza voluntarily accepting not having a permanent ceasefire and the the Hamas would say why would on Earth we accept all of this without a perspective of ending this war so what is Mr blinkin likely to achieve I mean he's got a big job as he heads out tomorrow indeed Mr blinkin in the in his tours as you said this is the tour number seven is trying to put this conflict in a wider context so he is trying to convince the Arab countries that you know the United States is committed to the two-state solution is committed to the the longterm solution to the Palestinian cause he's trying to convince Saudi Arabia to return back to the path of normalization the relationship with Israel he's trying to get the wider perspective and even Hamas announced last last week that they are willing to discuss being disarmed if the two State solution uh um um path would be would be viable so he is trying to do that Israel is is only trying to achieve the the two main aims of this war destroying Hamas releasing the hostages and the United States trying to find a longer deal a long u um term deal for the Palestinian cause that would give the uh Americans uh peace of mind for for for amount of time

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Length: 5min 34sec (334 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2024