Hamas on Saturday claimed a hostage kidnapped by the Palestinian terrorists during their murderous Oct. 7 attack on Israel and featured in a recent hostage video has died.
Nadav Popplewell, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel, died after he was injured during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the terror group said in a video released Saturday.
The news of Popplewell’s death came hours after Hamas released a separate, undated video that showed the 51-year-old man apparently beaten in the latest in a series of hostage propaganda films shared by the terror group.
In the clip, Popplewell was seen in front of a white wall with a large bruise on his right eye.
In the second video, Hamas said last month an Israeli missile struck the site where Popplewell, a British citizen, was being held alongside a female hostage.
“He died because he didn’t receive intensive medical care at medical facilities because of the enemy’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza,” said Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Hamas’ armed wing.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the second video. It has previously denied some of Hamas’ claims that hostages were killed by Israeli attacks.
Popplewell was kidnapped along with his mother, Channah Peri, in the southern Israel community during the Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state, where 1,200 people were killed and another roughly 250 were taken hostage.
Popplewell’s brother was killed in the surprise attack.
Peri was among 24 hostages freed on Nov. 24 as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Rescuing the estimated 128 remaining hostages and rooting out Hamas from Gaza is at the heart of Israel’s ongoing military operations in Palestinian territory, including the ground offensive in the southernmost city of Rafah that continued Saturday despite criticism from the US and other allies.
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces widened evacuation orders for additional parts of Rafah as it prepared to expand its military operation into the city’s heavily populated central areas.
The IDF also warned residents in northern Gaza, including Jabalia and surrounding enclaves, that Hamas terrorists had regrouped there and told them to flee to western Gaza City.
Roughly 300,000 people have fled Rafah and headed toward Al-Mawasi, according to the Israeli military.
Rafah, which borders Egypt, has served as a 25-square-mile safe haven for over a million displaced Palestinians, who sought shelter there during the seven-month-old bloody conflict.
The most recent evacuation orders on Saturday followed what appeared to be faltering internationally mediated ceasefire-for-hostage-release talks between Israel and Gaza.
On Friday, Hamas senior official Khalil Al-Hayya claimed the terrorist group is seeking peace, whereas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to prolong the war.
“Hamas did not suspend nor withdraw from the [ceasefire] negotiations; the occupation turned against the mediators’ proposal,” Al-Hayya said to Al Araby TV.
Hamas claimed ceasefire talks will have to start over entirely after Israel rebuffed a proposal put forward by international mediators.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration late Friday issued a report stating Israel may have broken international humanitarian law during its military operations in Gaza in using US-supplied weapons.
The administration, however, refrained from providing any definitive findings in its strongest criticism to date of Israel, noting that it couldn’t verify specific instances where the Jewish state may have used weapons in alleged violations.
In other developments:
- The United Nations, relying on Hamas’ health ministry and media office in Gaza, appears to have halved the number of Palestinian women and children it says have been killed in the ongoing war with Israel, The Times of Israel reported.
- The US pledged to vote down any United Nations resolution that would seek to grant Palestine full membership in international body. The hardline promise came after a General Assembly resolution stating that Palestine qualified for membership passed with overwhelming support.
With Post wires
