Hamas posted a video showing the 19-year-old Israeli prisoner during indirect talks between the group and Israel in Qatar to renew a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The video shows Riri al-Bagh urging the Israeli government to conclude negotiations.
She was taken hostage along with six other female conscripts at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during a Hamas attack in October 2023. Five of them are still held captive.
Palestinian rescue workers said more than 30 people were killed in bombings on Saturday, as Israel intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Eleven people, including seven children, were killed in a single attack on a house in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense Agency.
Images showed residents searching for survivors in the rubble and searching for bodies wrapped in shrouds.
“A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking,” neighbor Ahmed Musa told AFP.
“It was a home for children and women. There was no one wanted or anyone posing a threat.”
The Israeli military said on Sunday it had struck more than 100 “terrorist targets” in the Gaza Strip over the past two days, eliminating dozens of Hamas terrorists.
Riri al-Bagh’s parents said they were heartbroken after seeing the video of their daughter and appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “make decisions as if their child were there.”
The headquarters of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which represents hostages’ families, said Riri’s signs of life were “harsh and undeniable evidence of the urgency of bringing all hostages home.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Lira al-Bagh’s parents and told them that the Israeli delegation would remain at the negotiating table until all the hostages returned home.
Israeli officials have previously described Hamas’ release of such videos as psychological warfare.
Last month, a senior Palestinian official told the BBC: Talks for a ceasefire and hostage release are almost complete.But the main issues still need to be connected.
Israel’s military on Sunday said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, the latest in a series of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Houthi rebels announced that they had launched a ‘hypersonic ballistic missile’ at a power plant near Haifa, Israel. The group said it began targeting ships in the Red Sea and firing projectiles toward Israel in response to Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
The current war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed more than 45,700 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that all three government hospitals in northern Gaza were completely disused and “destroyed” by the Israeli military.
The Israeli military has been imposing a blockade on the northern part of the Gaza Strip since last October, and the United Nations has declared that the area is in danger as the Israeli military strictly restricts access to deliver aid to the area where about 10,000 to 15,000 people remain. He said he was in a state of ‘almost complete siege’. .
Late last month, the Israeli military forcibly evicted patients and medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, claiming it was a “Hamas terrorist base.” Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya arrested.
It said it facilitated the transfer of some medical staff and patients to nearby Indonesian hospitals. But Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that that hospital, along with the hospital in Beit Hanoun, had also suspended services.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has once again called for an end to attacks on hospitals and medical professionals. “People in Gaza must have access to health care,” he said.
Israel says its forces operate in accordance with international law and do not target civilians.
On Saturday, the Biden administration said: It plans to sell $8 billion (£6.4 billion) worth of arms to Israel.. Weapons consignments that require approval from U.S. House and Senate committees include missiles, artillery shells and other munitions.
The move comes just two weeks before Biden leaves office and Donald Trump becomes president.
Washington has consistently rejected calls to end military aid to Israel because of the large numbers of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip.
