Are the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas and held in Gaza fake? No, that's not true: Testimonials of released hostages and family members of hostages have been published. Furthermore, videos of Hamas fighters kidnapping people filled the internet after the October 7, 2023 attack of Hamas on Israel.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) on TikTok by user @iondragoshoreaba2023 on November 3, 2023. The caption (translated into English from Romanian by Lead Stories staff) reads:
Do these hostages actually exist?
This is what the author claims:
In the Tel Aviv Airport they have these pictures. But I wonder why are they trying to convince us that these are hostages. Maybe because they are not?
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tues Nov 7 06:10:06 2023 UTC)
Posters of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas designed by Israeli artists living abroad have been appearing in public squares all over the world in order to raise awareness of the situation of the hostages. According to a statement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "over 200" Israelis have been taken hostage by Hamas and taken to Gaza, "including 33 children." The hostages are most likely held in underground tunnels, according to numerous reports like here. Four hostages have been released, one has been rescued, and negotiations with the help of the US and Qatar are going on through various channels to release more hostages.
There is no reason to believe that the hostages are not real, as the hostages' families are telling their stories. Furthermore, hostages who have been released talked about their experiences. There is also a video of two Israeli elderly women being handed over to Israeli forces by Hamas fighters and one of them talked about the conditions in which she was held. Hamas has also released a video, showing three unharmed young female hostages, criticizing Netanyahu's inability to protect Israel against the attack, and urging the Israeli government to make a swap of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, in order to secure the life of Israeli hostages. It is assumed that this message was produced under duress, the video was released on Hamas channels.
