Hamas on Sunday threatened to kill all remaining hostages if demands such as more aid for Gaza and a prisoner exchange were not met, after suffering repeated defeats in its battle with Israel.
Palestinian terror groups are still holding the bodies of 20 hostages who died in custody, Israel said over the weekend.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, claimed Sunday that no more abduction victims would leave Gaza alive unless Israel agreed to all its demands in talks that failed in early December. At least part of the demand is for more aid for the people of Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
“Neither the fascist enemy and its arrogant leadership… nor its supporters… can capture their prisoners alive without exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance,” Obeida said in a televised broadcast.
The remarks came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that of the 137 hostages believed to be still in Hamas custody, 20 had died. More than 100 people were released in an aid and detention pact last month.
Family members of some 137 hostages still in Gaza demanded their release during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday. ABIR SULTAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Hamas has previously accused Israel of killing hostages during a relentless campaign of airstrikes in northern Gaza, with the claim repeated in a Hamas video by hostage Yarden Bibas, who blamed Netanyahu for the deaths of his wife and two sons.
Israel has slammed the claims as propaganda, and it has accused the terror group of stooping so low as to refuse to hand over the bodies of their dead.
Hamas allegedly tried to capitalize on the dead bodies in stalled hostage exchange talks in hopes of freeing more Palestinians from Israeli prisons and seeing more aid trucks arrive in Gaza.
Israel believes at least 20 hostages taken by Hamas have died in custody. via Reuters
The militants freed more than 100 hostages during a seven-day ceasefire last month, but after both sides failed to agree on an eighth wave of exchanges, the war resumed on Dec. 1.
Since the end of the ceasefire, 3,500 Hamas targets have been taken out in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday, with more than 22,000 targets destroyed since the war began on October 7 with deadly Hamas sneak attacks on Israel.
A senior IDF official claimed that with recent Israeli advances in northern and southern Gaza, there are now “signs of Hamas breaking out,” the Times of Israel reported.
Israel has directed its artillery south of Gaza. AFP via Getty Images
“The level of destruction and damage creates command and control problems [for Hamas]. There are areas in the Gaza Strip that Hamas no longer controls militarily,” the official said.
But despite Israel’s latest victory across Gaza, the official said the fighting would only intensify as Hamas held out as long as possible.
After nearly two months of fighting in northern Gaza, including storming and destroying several headquarters, the IDF is now focusing its bombardment around Khan Younis, the largest city in the south.
Palestinians enter destroyed buildings to collect their belongings after an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij camp Sunday. APAImages/Shutterstock
Heavy fighting was reported in the center of the city, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled after being displaced from the north.
During the fighting, the IDF surrounded the northern Gaza home of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the man believed to have masterminded the October 7 massacre that killed more than 1,200 Israelis.
But Sinwar has already allegedly fled south by hiding in an evacuated humanitarian vehicle and is now believed to be in one of the tunnels in Khan Younis that is part of Hamas’s vast underground network, the Times of Israel reported.
Civilian casualties are reportedly still high as the war continues past its second month. Getty Images
Along with taking half of Hamas’ estimated 24 battalion leaders, the Israeli military estimates that about 7,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed during the war.
Gaza’s Hamas-linked Health Ministry believes the war has claimed more than 17,700 casualties in total, the majority women and children, with an IDF spokesman previously describing the ratio of terrorists to civilians killed as “positive.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged the Jewish state to do more to prevent civilian deaths in the Palestinian territories, admitting that not enough has been done by America’s staunch ally.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has advised Israel to reduce civilian casualties. Reuters
“The intent is there, but the results aren’t always apparent,” Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Blinken said Israel needed a longer pause in the war to allow civilians to flee and more aid to reach the nearly 2 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the conflict began.
Despite concerns about Israel’s conduct of the war, Blinken noted that the Jewish state has the final say on how it will conduct the war and when it will end.
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“We held this discussion with Israel, including the duration and how it prosecutes this campaign against Hamas,” he said. “This is a decision for Israel to make.
“But Hamas also has a decision to make. It could come out of hiding behind the public tomorrow. He can lay his hands on it tomorrow. It can surrender tomorrow, and this will be over,” said the top US diplomat.
Blinken also defended America’s decision to bypass a congressional vote to sell nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel.
The secretary of state said the sale fell short of what Israel needed as he called on Congress to pass a $100 billion aid bill for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
