Hamas says another Israeli hostage held in Gaza has died
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Saturday that another of the hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack on Israel has died.
Hamas released a video saying that Nadav Popwell, a hostage from the southern Israeli community of Kibbutz Nirim, has died after being injured in an Israeli attack in Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the latest video. In this, previous videos of hostages released by Hamas have been described as psychological terror. It also refuted some of Hamas’s previous allegations that the hostages died from Israeli gunfire.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas released an undated video of the 51-year-old detainee standing in front of a white wall, with a scar over his right eye, saying his name.
A few hours later, in a second video, it was said that Popplewell died of wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike a month earlier.
Hamas said Popwell, whom it said was also a British citizen, was detained along with a female hostage after the facility where they were being held was targeted by an Israeli missile .
“He died because he could not receive intensive medical care in medical facilities due to the enemy’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza,” Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a statement.
According to Israeli data, out of the 252 people abducted on October 7, 128 remain in Gaza. At least 36 of them have been declared dead by the Israeli Forensic Committee.
Israel says securing the release of the hostages is the aim of its offensive in Gaza, as well as eliminating Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007.
According to the Hostage Assistance Group, Popplewell was captured from her home in Kibbutz Nirim along with her mother. His brother had died during the attack. His mother was freed during a brief ceasefire in November.