The Israeli military confirmed the deaths of four more on Monday hostages held by Hamas – including three elderly men seen in a Hamas video pleading for their release.
The three men, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger and Haim Peri, were all 80 years or older. Looking weak and wary, they appeared in a video released by Hamas in December under the caption: “Don’t let us grow old here.”
The fourth hostage was identified as Nadav Popplewell.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the four men died together in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis when Israel was operating there. The cause of death was not immediately known.
“We are checking all options,” Hagari said. “There are a lot of questions.”
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of Israeli abductees, Cooper was 84, Metzger and Peri 80 and Popplewell 51.
Amir Levy/Getty Images
The confirmation of their deaths came less than two weeks after Hagari released a statement on social media announcing that the bodies of three hostages killed on October 7 – Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux – had been recovered and their families had been informed. It is believed they were killed at the Mefalsim intersection on October 7 and their bodies taken to Gaza.
Israel carried out a major offensive in Khan Younis, a Hamas stronghold, at the beginning of this year.
Hamas claimed in May that Popplewell had been killed after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike, but provided no evidence.
Cooper, Metzger and Peri were featured in a Hamas propaganda video in which Peri, clearly under duress, said in the video that all three men had chronic illnesses and accused Israel of abandoning them.
The deaths added to the growing list of hostages Israel says have died in captivity. On October 7, Hamas took some 250 hostages back to Gaza. About half were released during a brief ceasefire in November. Of the approximately 130 still in the strip, approximately 85 are believed to still be alive.
The families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas this weekend called on all parties to immediately accept the proposal Three-phase agreement outlined by President Biden Friday to end the nearly eight-month war and bring their relatives home.
In a statement Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called a permanent ceasefire in Gaza a “nonstarter” until long-standing conditions for ending the war are met, which would undermine the deal Biden announced if an agreement seems to undermine it. Israeli one.
