ISTANBUL

An Israeli hostage being held by the Palestinian group Hamas pleaded Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to arrange for the burial of his family in Israel after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip.

The plea came in a recorded message released by Hamas's armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

“Bibi (Netanyahu), you bombed and killed my wife and my two children, who were the most important thing in my life,” said Yardin Bibas.

“I request from you to return my family to their homeland so they can be buried in Israel,” he added emotionally.

“Bibi, I beg you to bring them back to Israel. Please bring them back home.”

The Al-Qassam Brigades previously said that Shiri Bibas and her two children -- 4-year-old Ariel and 10-month-old Kfir -- were killed during an airstrike by Israeli warplanes on the Gaza Strip, without specifying the location or timing of the attack.

They indicated that they “offered to hand over the three bodies to the Israeli occupation, but it refused to accept them.”

The spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, said Thursday at a press conference that “Hamas's claims regarding the Bibas family remain unconfirmed, and the published documentation is psychological terrorism.”

On Monday, Israeli Channel 13 reported, citing relatives of released Israeli hostages from Gaza, that the hostages “did not face ill-treatment and were not subjected to torture” during their captivity with Hamas.

The Israeli channel noted that the hostages “generally speak of good treatment there by Hamas activists, and aside from the shortage of medicines, they were not subjected to violent treatment or abuse.”

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala