Hamas says another Israeli hostage held in Gaza is dead
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Saturday that another one of the hostages abducted during its October 7 attack on Israel has died.
Hamas released a video saying that Nadav Popplewell, who was taken hostage from the southern Israeli community of Kibbutz Nirim, died after being wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
The Israeli military did not offer immediate comment on the latest video. It has referred to previous videos of hostages released by Hamas as psychological terror. It has also denied some of the previous accusations by Hamas that hostages were killed by Israeli fire.
Earlier on Saturday Hamas released an undated video of the 51-year-old captive in front of a white wall, with a bruise on his right eye, and speaking his name.
Hours later, in the second video, it said Popplewell died of wounds sustained a month ago in an Israeli air strike.
Hamas said Popplewell, whom it said was also a British citizen, was being detained with a woman hostage when the place they were being held was targeted by an Israeli missile.
“He died because he didn’t receive intensive medical care at medical facilities because of the enemy’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza,” the Hamas armed wing spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said in a statement.
Of 252 people abducted on Oct. 7, 128 remain in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. At least 36 of them have been declared dead by an Israeli forensic committee.
Israel says securing the release of the hostages is the aim of its offensive in Gaza, along with eliminating Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007.
Popplewell, according to the hostages support group, was captured with his mother from her home in Kibbutz Nirim. His brother was killed during the attack. His mother was freed during a brief truce in November.