Ohel’s mother told reporters in February that she had learned from military sources who had spoken with other released hostages that her son was receiving very little food and no medical care for multiple injuries, including an eye injury that has left him partly blind.
He had been held bound for much of the time and was tortured, she said she had learned from Israeli military officials.
“It was not easy to hear,” Ohel said at the time. “I must say that I even fainted.”
Rights groups and international law experts say that hostage videos are, by definition, made under duress, that the statements in them are usually coerced and that making them can constitute a war crime.
Israeli officials have called the videos a form of “psychological warfare”.
Ohel’s parents, in their statement today said the Hamas video constituted “psychological terror”, asking the news media not to show it.
The latest Hamas hostage video came as a wave of nations — including Australia, Britain, Canada and France — are recognising a Palestinian nation in what they say is an effort to salvage a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the sponsors of the statehood conference today, along with Saudi Arabia’s leadership, tied recognition to the plight of the hostages in an address at the United Nations.
“We must now set in motion a cycle of peace that meets the needs of all parties,” he said.
“The top priority,” he said, was to ensure the release of hostages being held by militants in Gaza and end the Israeli military’s operations in the enclave.
Israeli leaders and President Donald Trump have said that recognition of statehood amounts to a reward for Hamas’ attack and subsequent actions, including taking and holding the captives.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a briefing today that Trump “has been very clear” that he disagreed with the moves.
“He feels this does not do anything to release the hostages, which is the primary goal right now in Gaza,” Leavitt said.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, who dismissed the conference on Palestinian statehood as “theatre,” similarly criticised the decisions to act unilaterally by nations that have been longtime allies of Israel.
He said that a two-state solution to the conflict had been a matter of debate in Israel before the war in Gaza began, but that “after October 7, it’s off the table”.
Danon said that Israel was focused on the release of its hostages and the defeat of Hamas in Gaza.
But in Israel, some families and relatives of the captives and their supporters demonstrated in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, calling for a ceasefire that would bring their loved ones home.
“On the eve of Rosh Hashana, during these days of repentance, the fate of young Jewish lives — Israeli citizens — now rests in the hands of the Prime minister and the Cabinet,” they said in their statement.
“Do not break the heart of the people of Israel. The most important national message right now is bringing Alon and all the hostages home to their families.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Ephrat Livni
Photographs by: XXX
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
