San Diego man’s father held hostage in Gaza is confirmed dead, as Israel announces four more Hamas victims
IsraelThe military has confirmed the deaths of four more hostages Gaza since the October 7 attack at a music festival.
Nadav Popplewell, 51, Yoram Metzger, 80, Amiram Cooper, 84, and Chaim Peri, 79, all died several months ago while in the custody of Hamas in the Khan Younis area, The times of Israel reported.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the four men died together when the Israeli army operated in Khan Younis earlier this year, although he did not give a definitive cause of death.
“We are checking all options,” Hagari said. “There are a lot of questions.”
Hamas claimed in May that Popplewell was killed as a result of an airstrike, but has not yet provided evidence. PBS reported. Months earlier, the terrorist organization Al-Qassam Brigades claimed that Peri, Cooper and Metzger were among seven hostages killed in a Israeli air raid, NBC reported.
Amiram Cooper, left, and Chaim Peri, right, were part of the same kibbutz just a mile outside Gaza
Yoram Metzger, 80, and Nadav Popplewell, 51, were among hundreds of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7
Amiram Cooper has a son named Rotem who lives in San Diego. As the attacks in Israel unfolded, Rotem discovered that his father and mother Nurit, 79, had been kidnapped by Hamas.
Amiram and Nurit had called Nir Oz, a kibbutz about a mile outside Gaza, home for seventy years, and were among the first to settle there. ABC San Diego reported last October.
Rotem added that his parents told him they had locked themselves in a bomb shelter at their home.
“They told me they basically locked themselves in that room, but there’s no way to lock the door,” he said.
Not long after, he couldn’t reach his parents, so he flew as quickly as possible to Israel, arriving three days later.
Amiram Cooper (second from right) and Nurit Cooper (red shirt) are pictured with their family
Amiram is depicted with his grandson
Amiram and Nurit are depicted together. The couple was kidnapped from their home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz just outside Gaza
Rotem found bullet holes in the door leading to his parents’ shelter, but no bloodstains, giving him hope that they were still alive.
Amiram and Nurit were held in the same underground room along with five other residents of the kibbutz, Rotem said The times of Israel.
Nurit was released on October 23 and is still recovering at home with her family.
Metzger, Cooper and Peri, all nearly 80 years old or older, were featured in the film a Hamas propaganda video in December where they are heard pleading with Israel, “Let us not grow old here.”
Peri, a resident of Nir Oz along with Cooper and his wife Nurit, explained in the video that he was held together with other elderly hostages with chronic illnesses, and that they all lived in very harsh conditions.
Amiram and Nurit in the photo with their son Rotem, who is sitting next to his father
Popplewell, a British-Israeli, appears in a Hamas terror video. Hamas confirmed he was dead just hours after the 11-second clip was released
“You have to get us out of here. It doesn’t matter what the costs are. We do not want to be victims as a direct result of the IDF military airstrikes. Free us without conditions. Let us not grow old here,” Peri said in Hebrew.
Popplewell, Hamas’s fourth victim, was a British-Israeli citizen which was also featured in a Hamas propaganda video broadcast in early May.
Just three hours after releasing the chilling eleven-second clip of Popplewell, badly bruised but alive, Hamas confirmed he was dead.
Of the approximately 130 Israeli hostages still in the Gaza Strip, about 85 are believed to be alive, PBS reported.
This new information comes from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected President Joe Biden’s ceasefirevowing to continue the war that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians.
