Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists added more pain to the families mourning the six dead hostages recently recovered in the Gaza Strip by releasing footage Monday of the victims and warning there is more to come, including their "last messages."
In the video, all six hostages, looking gaunt, are seen confirming their identities before cutting to a still frame threatening to release their "last messages" in the coming hours, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The six hostages found by Israel Defense Forces on Saturday in a tunnel in Rafah are American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Carmel Gat, 40, Almog Sarusi, 27, Alexander Lobanov, 32, and Ori Danino, 25.
It is not known when the footage was taken but they were believed to have been fatally shot at close range multiple times two to three days before their bodies were found, the New York Post reported Monday.
Hamas previously released similar videos of hostages taken during its Oct. 7 terrorist attack, footage the Israeli government has denounced as a form of psychological warfare.
Other videos included a brief message from Goldberg-Polin in April in which he identified himself as Israeli and said he had been held captive for "nearly 200 days," which suggested that the video was taken shortly before it was released.
Goldberg-Polin was missing part of his left arm, which was blown off by a Hamas grenade when the terror group descended on the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the terror attack. His body and those of the five other slain hostages found Saturday were released to their families over the weekend, the New York Post reported.
Relatives of Goldberg-Polin were joined by thousands of mourners at his funeral service in Jerusalem on Monday, the New York Post reported. His mother, Rachel Goldberg, begged her murdered son for forgiveness for not being able to bring him home alive.
"If there was something we could have done to save you, and we didn’t think of it, I beg your forgiveness," she said during the ceremony. "We tried so very hard, so deeply and desperately. I’m sorry."