The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, issued a statement today, Saturday, in which it said that it had lost contact with a group responsible for five Israeli prisoners, including the three who appeared a few days ago in a video titled: “Don’t let us grow old,” due to the continuous bombing. On the Gaza Strip.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was quoted as saying that the movement believes that the prisoners were killed during an Israeli raid.

The Phalange also stated in a statement that, as a result of the barbaric Israeli bombing, we lost contact with the group responsible for five of the prisoners, including Haim Gershon Peri, Yoram Itak Metzger, and Amiram Israel Cooper.

The Brigades added, “We believe that the prisoners were killed in one of the Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip.”

Al-Qassam’s announcement came after it published a new video of these prisoners titled: “After a while...what happened?”.

"Don't let us grow old"

The Al-Qassam Brigades had previously published on its account on the Telegram application, a video that began with the phrase, “Don’t let us grow old,” and was written in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic, and English, showing 3 elderly Israelis, one of whom spoke, identifying himself as Haim Berri, aged from Age 79 years.

He said: “I am here with a group of elderly people, all of whom suffer from chronic diseases and suffer from very harsh conditions. You must release us at all costs. We do not want to be victims of Air Force attacks. Release us without condition.”

He concluded his message by saying: “Don’t let us grow old,” and then he repeated the same message to the two other prisoners who appeared in the video.

Terrorist video

On the other hand, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari responded earlier to the video clip published by the Hamas movement, describing it as “a terrorist video showing innocent elderly people in need of treatment, while the movement denies them medication,” according to his claim.

The spokesman also addressed the prisoners who appeared in the video, saying that the army will work to recover them as soon as possible.

It is noteworthy that this video was released only hours after Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy admitted that his soldiers killed 3 prisoners in the Gaza Strip by mistake, despite them carrying white flags.