Hamas has threatened to execute the hostages in its custody due to the Israeli military’s response to one of the gravest terror attacks in the country’s history.
Militants from the Gaza Strip launched a sophisticated and heavily orchestrated terror attack this past weekend that left at least 700 Israelis dead, while the perpetrators also kidnapped an unknown number of Israeli civilians and brought them to the small enclave that borders the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas has claimed it has more than 100 hostages.
ISRAEL ORDERS ‘TOTAL SIEGE’ OF GAZA IN AFTERMATH OF UNPRECEDENTED TERROR ATTACK BY HAMAS
The Israeli Defense Forces has launched several airstrikes into Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of roughly 500 Palestinians, though it’s unclear how many of the casualties were militants and how many civilians were caught in the crosshairs.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, warned on Al-Jazeera Arabic that the group would execute hostages and broadcast it if Israel continued such strikes.
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“We believe in our religious and moral ethics as expressed by our chief of staff and his announcement of Al Aqsa operation. We also believe in the tenet of our faith Islam for preserving the lives of women and children and prisoners of war,” he said. “However, in the face of [Israel] indiscriminately attacking our residential areas, killing our women, children, and elderly, and as our enemy does not understand the values or ethics, then we speak to them in their own language.”
“Over the past few hours, we suffered as a result of the harm inflicted on our brothers and sisters at the hands of fascist barbarian Zionist attacks targeting residential buildings,” he continued. “Therefore, we have decided to put an end to this. From this moment on, we announce that any targeting of innocent civilians without warning will be met regretfully, to say, by executing one of the hostages in our custody, and we will be forced to broadcast this execution.”
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The Israeli military is not negotiating with Hamas or any third party for the release of the hostages.
“We’re not negotiating with anyone at this time. We are in a war. And I think that this is not the time for negotiation,” Lior Haiat, spokesman of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters. “And we’re still trying to secure a border to find out if there are any other Hamas terrorists on Israeli territory.”
