Palestinian militants release new clip of Israeli hostage Trupanov in Gaza

A Palestinian militant group allied with Hamas released a new clip Friday of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov, held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack, after publishing a first video earlier this week.

Trupanov, identified by his relatives in the previous video released on Wednesday, appealed to Aryeh Deri — leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, a member of Israel’s governing coalition — to help free him and the other hostages held in Gaza.

The Shas party supports a deal for their release under the Jewish religious obligation to do everything possible to free captives.

In September, Deri described the act of bringing back the hostages as a “sacred duty”.

Trupanov, 29, is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was abducted with his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border.

His mother and grandmother were also abducted and released along with Cohen during a week-long truce and hostage-prisoner exchange in November 2023.

His father, Vitaly, was killed in the October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.

This is now the fourth video of Trupanov released by Islamic Jihad.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for the release of Trupanov and another hostage, Maxim Herkin, in comments made before the release of the latest clip.

“We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held by Palestinian groups, with priority given to our compatriots,” she said.

Herkin, a 35-year-old Russian-Israeli citizen, was abducted at the Nova music festival.

Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, some of them already dead.

Ninety-seven are still being held hostage, while 34 are confirmed dead but their bodies remain in Gaza.

The attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,764 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.