The Kassam Brigades posted the one-minute video titled “Don’t Let Us Grow Old Here” on their Telegram account.

Hamas has released a video in which three elderly Israeli prisoners plead for their immediate release.

The Palestinian group’s armed wing, the Kassam Brigades, posted the one-minute video titled “Let’s not grow old here” on its Telegram account on Monday.

The men – identified by Israeli officials as 79-year-old Chaim Peri, 80-year-old Yoram Metzger and 84-year-old Amiram Cooper – were brought to Gaza on October 7 as Hamas launched attacks on Israeli territory, killing 1,147 people People were killed and about 240 prisoners were taken.

Peri, who sat between the other two in the video, said in Hebrew that he was being held along with other elderly hostages with chronic illnesses and that their conditions were harsh.

“We are the generation that laid the foundation for the founding of Israel. We are the ones who founded the IDF military. We don’t understand why we were abandoned here,” he said, referring to the Israeli armed forces.

“You have to free us from here. It doesn’t matter what price. We do not want to become victims as a direct result of the IDF’s military airstrikes. Release us without conditions,” he added.

The video ends with the three men saying in unison, “Let’s not grow old here.”

Israeli media reported that the three hostages were from Kibbutz Nir Oz on the Israeli border, which was the target of the October 7 attacks.

According to Israeli media reports, Peri was at his home in Nir Oz during the attack. He tried to fight off the gunmen while hiding his wife behind a sofa, his son told Reuters. He eventually surrendered himself to save his wife, who remained hidden, the report said.

Outrage over prisoners in Israel

The Israeli military said Hamas released a “criminal, terrorist video.”

“Chaim, Yoram and Amiram, I hope you hear me tonight,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised news conference. “Know this – we are doing everything, anything, to bring you back safely.”

Israel has described such videos in the past as a form of psychological warfare by Hamas.

Following the release of the latest video, families of Israelis held captive by Hamas in Gaza protested outside the Israel Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding the immediate release of their loved ones.

The protest came amid growing outrage within Israel after the Israeli military admitted it last week accidentally shot three Israeli prisoners in Gaza despite waving a white flag.

Al Jazeera correspondent Sara Khairat, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said the video released by Hamas sent a “strong message.”

“[The video] will do two things: show people that they are alive, even if it is still not clear when the film was made, and it will also put a lot more pressure on the Israeli government, which is already under pressure over the death of Difficulty lies “I took three prisoners last week and at a time when the demonstrations are ongoing,” she said.

As diplomatic efforts continue to end the war in Gaza and release prisoners held on both sides, the Israeli military has done so increased its bombing the enclave, killing nearly 19,500 people since October 7 – most of them women and children.

The air and ground attacks on Gaza have leveled the besieged enclave and buried thousands of people under the rubble.

Since the aid needed cannot flow to the strip, international aid organizations are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe with widespread hunger and the spread of disease.

Human Rights Watched has blamed Israel use hunger as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip.