Hamas claims two Israeli hostages have been killed in new video

Hamas has broadcast a video that purports to show the bodies of two Israeli hostages.

Footage posted on Monday evening showed Noa Argamani, 26, speaking to the camera and claiming that fellow captives Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, had been killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

It then shows two dead bodies, suggesting they are the bodies of Mr Sharabi and Mr Svirsky, with Ms Aragamani adding she was left injured by Israeli strikes.

A spokesperson for the IDF has denied targeting a building where the hostages were being held.

It comes after two previous videos featuring the hostages were published by Hamas.

The first video, which was undated and posted on Sunday, saw Ms Argamani, Mr Sharabi and Mr Svirsky identifying themselves before urging the Israeli government to end the war and ensure their release.

It ended with the message: “Tomorrow [Monday] we will inform you of their fate.”

The second clip, published earlier on Monday, showed faces of the hostages and again said their “fate” would be revealed later on.

The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has condemned the latest video and accused Hamas of carrying out “psychological abuse”.

Military spokesperson rear admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed Mr Svirsky had been killed and said the footage showed his body, but did not give any details about the second person due to a request from their family.

He told reporters: “Itai was not shot by our forces. That is a Hamas lie. The building in which they were held was not a target and it was not attacked by our forces. We don’t attack a place if we know there may be hostages inside.

He added areas nearby had been targeted and the military is examining the photos published by Hamas along with the other information it had.

Ms Argamani was attending the Supernova festival in southern Israel on October 7 when she was captured by Hamas. Footage of her pleading for her freedom while being driven away on a motorcycle went viral.

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Mr Sharabi was taken hostage from Kibbutz Beeri, one of the hardest hit communities in the Hamas assault, along with his brother, last year. His wife managed to save their daughters while his brother’s family was killed.

Mr Svirsky was also taken from Kibbutz Beeri last year after being shot and wounded and witnessing the killing of his mother. His father was also killed.

According to The Times, Ditza Or, the mother of Ms Argamani’s boyfriend, told Israeli television that it was good to see her alive, although it remains unclear when the footage was taken.

“It’s not easy to see,” Ms Or said. “On the one hand, it’s good to see Noa and hear her voice, to look into her eyes. On the other, we don’t know when they filmed it. I remember when Hamas had Gilad Shalit [an Israeli soldier kidnapped in 2006], he used to hold a newspaper to show the date so we’d believe them.”

At the outset of the war, Hamas threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for Israeli military strikes.

Hagar Mizrahi, a forensic official with Israel’s Health Ministry, has said that autopsies of hostages’ bodies recovered from Gaza found the causes of death to be inconsistent with Hamas’s claim that they had been killed in air strikes.

Additional reporting by agencies