Hamas claims hostage Nadav Popplewell died in IDF attack
Hamas yesterday claimed that a British-Israeli hostage had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike, shortly after releasing a short video showing him alive.
The brief 11-second clip posted by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, features Nadav Popplewell confirming his name and his home in southern Israel.
It was not clear when the video was taken or what state of health he was in. In the video, he can be seen with a a bruise on his right eye.
The footage is superimposed with text in Arabic and Hebrew that reads: “Time is running out. Your government is lying”.
The video was originally interpreted as a first sign of life for the 51-year-old, who was kidnapped on October 7. But Hamas later said in a statement that he had died of wounds that he sustained in an Israeli airstrike more than a month ago.
Hamas earlier said they would release the full video later yesterday, according to reports from affiliated media outlets.
Hamas said Mr Popplewell was being detained with a female hostage when the place they were being held was targeted by an Israeli missile.
“He died because he didn’t receive intensive medical care at medical facilities because of the enemy’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza,” said the Hamas armed wing spokesman.
Mr Popplewell was kidnapped from his home on October 7 along with his mother, Hanna Peri, who was released during a one-week truce in November — the only pause so far in more than seven months of war. His older brother was killed in the attack.
The video is the third time footage of hostages has been released in less than a month. On April 27, Hamas released a video of two hostages — Keith Siegel and Omri Miran. Three days before that it broadcast a video showing hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive.
In that footage, Mr Goldberg-Polin said that around half of the remaining Israeli hostages have been killed in Gaza. He said at least 70 of the remaining 130 or so hostages had been killed in Gaza in Israeli bombings — likely repeating a line given to him by his captors. Official Israeli estimates have put the number closer to 35.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration said on Friday that Israel’s use of US weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law — but wartime conditions prevented US officials from determining that for sure.
The finding of “reasonable” evidence to conclude that the US ally had breached international law protecting civilians in the way it conducted its war against Hamas was the strongest statement that the Biden administration has yet made on the matter.
But the caveat that the administration wasn’t able to link specific US weapons to individual attacks by Israeli forces could give the administration leeway in any future decision on whether to restrict provisions of offensive weapons to Israel.
The first-of-its-kind assessment, which was compelled by Democrats in the US Congress, comes after seven months of fighting have claimed the lives of nearly 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The US report said that given Israel’s “significant reliance” on American weapons, it was “reasonable to assess” that they had been used by the IDF in instances “inconsistent” with its obligations under humanitarian law.
Israel’s military has the experience, technology and know-how to minimise harm to civilians — but the the report said that the “high levels of civilian casualties raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases”.