Hamas warned on Sunday that none of the hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack and still held in the Gaza Strip would return “alive” without negotiations and without “response to the demands” of the Palestinian movement.
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“Neither the fascist enemy and its arrogant leadership nor its supporters will be able to bring back their prisoners alive without exchanges and negotiations and without meeting the demands of the resistance,” Abou Obeida, the spokesman, said in a video to the al -Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Before the ceasefire collapsed on December 1, it allowed for the release of 105 hostages held in Gaza, including 80 Israeli hostages who were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Qatar, which mediated between Hamas and Israel, noted that efforts were continuing to reach a new ceasefire and release new hostages, while stressing that the Israeli offensive in Gaza had “narrowed the chances of success.”
AFP
Israel – which has never published a list – said 137 hostages were still being held in the Gaza Strip, where its army is waging a sweeping offensive marked by intense shelling – from the air, sea and sky – in particular on small, overpopulated areas Area ruled by Hamas since 2007.
In their unprecedented attack on October 7 in southern Israel, around 240 hostages were forcibly taken into the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Abou Obeida reiterated that the fight will continue against the Israeli forces, whose military operations in the Gaza Strip have already claimed almost 18,000 lives, mostly women, children and teenagers, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
“We have no choice but to fight against this barbaric occupier, in every neighborhood, every street and every alley,” he said, “the holocaust that the enemy is carrying out is aimed at breaking the strength of our resistance (. ..), but we are fighting a holy battle on our land.”
AFP