Situation at a glance: Protests for hostage deal – video from Gaza Strip shocks

Following the release of an army video from the Gaza Strip, the call for an agreement to release the remaining hostages has gained new urgency. In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people demonstrated again for a deal between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas to bring the abducted people back to their homeland. The Israeli army had previously released a video showing the tunnel in the Gaza Strip in which six Israeli Hamas hostages were held captive and killed. The indirect negotiations for the release of the hostages in the Gaza Strip, in which the USA, Egypt and Qatar are mediating, have been going in circles for months.

Meanwhile, the US is calling on Israel’s security forces to make “fundamental changes” to their approach in the West Bank. The reason for this is the death of a US citizen who was killed during protests. The Israeli military admitted to being responsible for the death of the pro-Palestinian activist in the West Bank last week. According to Israeli sources, she was shot accidentally and according to current information.

Video shows pools of blood in hostage tunnel

In the video released by the military, army spokesman Daniel Hagari describes the oppressive conditions in the tunnel from which the six hostage bodies were recovered in early September. The path into the tunnel, which is 20 meters deep, leads from an entrance in a child’s room down via ladders, says Hagari. He is standing in a bombed-out room, on the walls of which colorful cartoon characters can still be seen. The narrow and low tunnel leads over a length of about 120 meters to an iron door. “This is where the hostages were held captive and murdered,” says Hagari in the approximately three-and-a-half minute video.

The army spokesman shows seized material – weapon magazines, batteries and copies of the Koran from Hamas, a chess set and items of clothing. “This is their blood,” Hagari says in the video, pointing to large dark stains on the floor of the tunnel. “They were here for weeks and months, in this tunnel with no air, where you can’t stand upright.” 101 hostages are still in Hamas’s power, “some of them alive” and trapped in similar tunnels.

Relatives: Recording is shocking

In a statement from the relatives’ forum, the footage was shocking. The remaining hostages had to “endure unimaginable suffering.” And: “Every day that passes is a threat to their lives, which hang by a thread.”

During the protests for a deal with Hamas, the father of a killed hostage said that “the Jewish ideal of saving a life is above all else.” He had come to join the cry of the 101 families of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, “to whom I no longer belong,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper “Haaretz.”

US insists on changes in Israel’s approach in the West Bank

Following the death of the activist with American-Turkish citizenship in the West Bank, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the Israeli military to make “fundamental changes” to its approach, including its rules on the use of weapons. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also called on his Israeli counterpart Joav Gallant in a phone call to review the military’s rules for operations in the West Bank.

“We have long seen reports of security forces turning a blind eye when extremist settlers use violence against Palestinians. We have seen reports of excessive force by Israeli security forces against Palestinians and now we have the second US citizen killed by Israeli security forces. This is unacceptable,” Blinken said in London.

The Israeli military said it deeply regretted the activist’s death and was investigating the incident. The soldiers’ shots were aimed at the person primarily responsible for the violent protests. US President Joe Biden said, according to reporters: “It appears to have been an accident.” The woman was hit by mistake.

Trump and Harris exchange blows over Middle East

The conflict in the Middle East was also addressed during the first TV debate between the two US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. “If she is president, I believe Israel will no longer exist in two years,” Trump said of his Democratic opponent. “She hates Israel and at the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because everything will blow up.”

During the debate, Harris condemned the massacre that Hamas and other terrorists carried out in Israel on October 7, which left around 1,200 people dead and which triggered the Gaza war. Against this background, she again stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, but at the same time said that far too many innocent Palestinians – including children and mothers – had been killed in the Gaza war. “What we know is that this war must end,” said Harris. An agreement for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages from the hands of Hamas is needed. Harris spoke out in favor of a two-state solution that would create security for both Israel and the Palestinians.

The Gaza war is an important issue in the US election campaign. In the US, there is harsh criticism of Israel’s military actions in view of the devastating situation of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the high number of civilian casualties.