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Man claiming to be Hamas member threatens mother of hostage

The man told the hostage’s mother she would have to go The Hague and testify that Israel ‘has been murdering our children.’

By World Israel News Staff

A man who spoke Hebrew with a Persian accent and claimed to be a member of Hamas called Julie Kupershtein, the mother of hostage Bar Kupershtein, and threatened her, KAN reported.

“It was early in the morning,” Kupershtein told KAN. “I received a phone call, and the person on the other end asked, ‘Bar’s mother?’ I was deeply offended.”

Bar Kupershtein, 23, was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023.

The man who claimed to be a member of Hamas told his mother that if she wants to see Bar, she would have to go The Hague and testify that Israel “has been murdering our children.”

He then accused her of “not doing enough” to bring her son home.

He also told her to “go out and protest in the streets and overthrow the government.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to have all living hostages held in the Gaza Strip released together during the first phase of a possible ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to an Arabic media report Wednesday night.

The report, published by the London-based, Qatari-owned New Arab or Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site, cited a senior Egyptian security official involved in brokered hostage-deal talks between Israel and Hamas in Doha, Qatar.

Read  Hamas responsible for failure to reach ceasefire, hostage deal, says US

The Egyptian official claimed that during the latest round of talks, which ended in late December, significant progress was made, with the two sides left on the verge of a major breakthrough and the drafting of a semi-final text for a deal.

At the time that talks were suspended, the official continued, Egyptian and Qatari officials were awaiting Hamas’s timetable for hammering out the remaining major issues, including the details of an IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire, the timing of the conclusion of the current war, and the number of jailed terrorists released in a possible deal who would be deported upon their release.

Thus far, ceasefire talks have centered around proposals for a three-phase deal, according to which 30-35 Israeli captives would be released in the first stage, with the remaining captives – including the remains of dead hostages – to be released in the second and third stages.