Hamas releases a video of a teenage Israeli soldier being held hostage in Gaza

Hamas’ military wing released a video on Saturday of Liri Albag, one of about 250 people the group took hostage in its attack on Israel, as Israeli and Hamas officials held other rounds of indirect ceasefire talks through mediators in Qatar.

Nearly 100 hostages remain held in Gaza nearly 15 months since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, which led to Israel’s war on Gaza. Talks to release them have faltered since a week-long truce in November 2023 that allowed the release of 105 Israeli and foreign prisoners.

Ms. Albag, 19, worked in the surveillance unit charged with monitoring potential threats along the border with Gaza. During the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, Palestinian fighters overran the military base where she was serving, killing more than 60 soldiers and kidnapping Ms. Albag and six other female soldiers.

The video released on Saturday was edited and showed Ms Albag speaking for about three and a half minutes. Ms. Albag said she was detained for more than 450 days, but this could not be definitively confirmed.

Ms Albag’s family said in a statement that her “severe psychological distress is evident” in the video, and that the footage “torn our hearts apart”. They asked leaders to “make decisions as if your children were there.”

“She is only tens of kilometers away from us, but for 456 days we have not been able to return her home,” the family said.

Human rights groups have He said Hamas’ practice of producing and releasing hostage videos amounted to inhumane treatment that could amount to a war crime. Israeli officials described this practice as a form of psychological warfare.

The two sides are under pressure from the incoming Trump administration to reach agreements on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages as soon as possible. President-elect Donald J. Trump warned there would be a “big push” unless the hostages were released by his January 20 inauguration.

But Mr. Trump did not explain in detail how he would break the stalemate between Israel and Hamas. The two sides have expressed seemingly irreconcilable demands during months of negotiations, thwarting many diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration.

Hamas said on Friday evening that its officials had resumed their meetings in the Qatari capital, Doha, to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel to release the hostages. In a statement, the movement reiterated its continued demand for Israel to end the war and withdraw from Gaza.

Israel said earlier this week that it would also send a delegation of mid-level security officials to meet with mediators in Qatar. But it is not at all clear whether Israel’s leaders are willing to meet Hamas’ conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged that the war would not end until Hamas was destroyed in Gaza.

Families of Israeli hostages fear that every day their loved ones spend in captivity will be their last. After the video featuring Ms. Alpage was released, the headquarters of the Hostage Families Forum, an advocacy group, called on both sides to adhere to the deadline set by Mr. Trump.

The movement said in a statement: “Every day in the hell of Hamas in Gaza poses an immediate threat of death to living hostages.” “There are sixteen days left until the deadline set by President-elect Trump. We must not lose this historic opportunity.”

Israel continued its military campaign in Gaza on Saturday. Gaza Civil Defense, a rescue agency affiliated with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, reported several air strikes in which at least 11 people were killed and more than 20 were missing under rubble across the Strip. The agency does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its groups. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.