The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said in a statement late Wednesday that it had freed the Israeli woman and her two children, but Israeli media said that was false, AFP reported.

“An Israeli settler and two of her children were released after being detained during clashes between the movement and the Israeli army,” Hamas’ armed wing said, without specifying the date of their release.

A video broadcast shortly afterwards by al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas channel, shows a woman in a blue shirt with two children and three armed men walking away from an area of ​​barbed wire that appears to be a fence erected by Israel around Gaza. Gaza.

No Israeli military presence is visible in the images.

Israeli public television later said the footage showed people who were “never taken to Gaza”.

Local media identified it as Avital Aladjem, a resident of Kibbutz Holit, who, according to her account in a series of interviews, was forcibly taken by Hamas representatives on Saturday along with a neighbor’s two children in the border area between Israel. and the Gaza Strip.

Alajem stated that the kidnappers allowed him to leave with the children.

Hamas denies committing crimes against civilians

As testimonies from survivors begin to reveal the extent of the atrocities committed by Hamas in Saturday’s extremely brutal attack, the Islamist movement, designated a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, has denied committing atrocities against civilians and blamed the “Western press”. for relaying false accusations.

Dozens of Israelis and foreigners, soldiers, civilians, children and women, are said to be in the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the offensive, which caught Israel completely off guard on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and in the middle of Saturday.

Israeli authorities say there are 150 hostages, hundreds of people are missing.

There was no official release yet.