Hamas armed wing releases video of Israeli-German hostage held in Gaza

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza following the attack. A temporary ceasefire earlier this year, from January 19 to March 17, led to the release of 33 hostages eight of whom were dead in exchange for the release of around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.

By: Express Web Desk

Updated: August 1, 2025 10:39 PM IST

2 min read

The six-minute video, shared on Thursday, features the hostage identified as Rom Braslavski speaking in Hebrew and calling on the Israeli government to help secure his release. (Photo: X/@EFischberger)

The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has released a new video showing an Israeli-German man taken hostage during the October 2023 attack that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

The six-minute video, shared on Thursday, features the hostage, identified as Rom Braslavski, speaking in Hebrew and calling on the Israeli government to help secure his release. He is also shown watching Arabic-language television reports on the worsening food crisis in Gaza.

AFP and several Israeli outlets identified the man as Braslavski, a dual national from Jerusalem. He had been working as a security agent at the Nova music festival, one of the sites attacked during the October assault.

At the start of the footage, Hamas’s armed wing claims it has lost contact with Braslavski, repeating a statement it made last week. This suggests the video may have been recorded earlier.

A previous video of Braslavski was released on 16 April. Witnesses say that before being abducted, he helped rescue several festival attendees during the attack.

According to the Israeli military, 251 people were taken hostage during the October 2023 raid into southern Israel. Of those, 49 remain in Gaza, including 27 believed to be dead.

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Braslavski’s video was released by a group designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.