Hamas releases a new video of hostages, while Egypt warns of defined conversations

Hamas published a new video on Saturday, which is supposed to show Israeli Geiselmaxim Herkin, one of the 59 people who were still captured in Gaza. The Israeli media quickly identified Herkin, who was bandaged and claimed to recover from an air raid in a tunnel as the same person in previous Hamas propaganda videos.

The video that was edited and undated included references to Israel's independence day, which indicates that it was shot last week. Herkin, a 35-year-old dual Russian Israeli Citizen, was kidnapped during the Hamas attack on October 7 during the part of the Nova Music Festival. He has a young daughter and is the only provider for his mother and younger brother.

Israeli civil servants and the forum for hostages and missing families have condemned videos as a psychological war. Israel estimates that the 59 hostages that are assumed that they stay in Gaza.

In the meantime, ceasefire negotiations seem to be in a dead end. An unarmed Egyptian civil servant who is involved in the talks told Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese outlet who is connected to the Hisbollah that “there is nothing new to negotiate” and the lack of progress on “an American Israeli unwillingness to end the war”.

According to the same report, Egypt supports a complete exchange for weapons: an overall Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza in return for the publication of all hostages. However, other options are also reported, including a gradual agreement supported by US guarantees, which would begin with the publication of half of the remaining hostages and some body.

Hamas rejected a proposal that does not contain a permanent end of the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, rejected every deal that continues the conflict before the Hamas is dismantled militarily and politically.