PIJ fires 2 rockets at Sderot; Hamas publishes videos of Israeli hostages Elkana Bohbot & Yosef-Haim Ohana

Amid ongoing negotiations over the renewal of a ceasefire with Israel, Hamas on Monday published a video featuring Israeli hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, while its allies in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group launched two rockets at the area of Sderot.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it shot down two rockets after alarms were triggered in Sderot and nearby towns, including Netiv Ha’asara, Karmia, Zikim, Nir Am, and Ibim.

The PIJ later claimed responsibility for the evening attack, which was the third rocket launch from Gaza at Israel since the IDF resumed fighting against the terror groups in Gaza.

Several hours before, Hamas released a video showing Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana reading out scripted propaganda messages aimed at the Israeli public.

Bohbot and Ohana were shown lamenting their fate and the harsh conditions in captivity while claiming they asked to film the video themselves and that Hamas didn't force them to read pre-scripted messages.

In the video, they also turn to the released hostage Ohad Ben Ami, and ask him to tell the Israeli public about their conditions. The Ben Ami family later confirmed that he had been held in a tunnel together with Bohbot and Elkana.

The Bohbot family approved the publication of the parts of the video featuring him.

In a statement, the family said that he had now spent 535 days “in an ongoing hell.”

The family said they could recognize “in the video that he is in bad shape, that he has lost a lot of weight from continued starvation, that he is suffering from problems with his skin and his breathing.”

Elkana suffers from asthma, his family said, adding that he “hasn’t seen the light of day for almost a year and a half!”

The Hamas video is “further proof that Elkana has to return home to his family, to his wife Rivka and his son Re’em David. Elkana is screaming for help and screaming that we don’t forget him in the tunnels of hell,” the Bohbot family said.

The statement closed with an appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump to imagine that “this is your son, your father or your grandson, who is waiting to see the light of day.”

Bohbot is a resident of Mevaseret Zion, near Jerusalem, and was abducted during the Nova party in Re’im, where he worked in the production team. When the invasion began, Bohbot treated and evacuated the wounded until he was kidnapped.

He and his wife Rivka are parents to a 4-year-old son. In a speech at the Knesset, Rivka said, “He could have escaped but chose to stay, to help people evacuate and care for the injured. At 8:00 a.m., we spoke for the last time. He promised me he would come back home, and I trust him on that. We have a little boy who waits for his father every day.”

Yosef-Haim Ohana (24), a resident of Kiryat Malachi, was also abducted from the Nova party. Ohana worked as a bartender, and together with another friend, also helped the wounded at the party until being kidnapped.