Hamas terrorists have made a chilling threat to Israel vowing more than 100 hostages will not be returned alive if their “demands are not met”.
During an angry rant on Sunday the spokesman for Hamas, Abu Obeida, told a Palestinian TV channel that Israel was a “fascist enemy” with “arrogant leadership”.
He said the Israelis would not be able to “take their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance”.
During the Hamas atrocities of October 7 more than 240 people were seized and taken to Gaza, including babies, women and children.
More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month in exchanges for women and minors held in Israeli prisons.
Israel says Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during October’s incursion. Most remaining hostages are soldiers and civilian men, and Hamas hope to exchange them for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
According to the BBC, Israeli Prime Minister said the war against Hamas was still in “full swing”, adding “dozens of Hamas terrorists” had surrendered.
He said they were “laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters” and that “this is the beginning of the end for Hamas.”
Today there was heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces opened a new line of attack last week, and battles were still underway in parts of Gaza City and the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where large areas have been reduced to rubble.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, saying the terror group endangers residents by fighting in dense areas and positioning military infrastructurem including weapons, tunnels and rocket launchers, in or near civilian buildings.
The Israeli Defence Force said that troops killed armed men as they left a clinic, and that forces operating in Jabaliya found a truck full of long-range rockets near a school. In a home in Jabaliya, soldiers found a rifle, two rocket-propelled grenade launchers and explosives, it said.
