By Luis De Jesus
09 Jun 2024, 10:36 PM EDT
The Al Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas, reported the death of three hostages, including an American citizen, during Israel’s rescue operation in Gaza. The group did not identify the deceased or provide details about their identities.
An almost one-minute video, released by Hamas, shows that the three hostages died in the Israeli offensive in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of the strip. The Gaza Ministry of Health confirmed the deaths of more than 270 Palestinians and approximately 680 wounded in the bombings.
“The captives will not be released unless our prisoners are free,” Al Qasam said in the video, referring to the 120 hostages they still hold, many of them deceased.
On Saturday, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the al-Qasam Brigades, said some hostages were killed during the operation. “The enemy managed to free some of their captives by committing horrible massacres, but at the same time killed some of them during the operation,” he said in a statement.
The Israeli Army confirmed that its warplanes attacked “dozens of military objectives to achieve the success of the operation.” While the Islamist group said it identified among the deceased Palestinians 64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people.
“The operation was carried out after many weeks collecting information on the whereabouts of the hostages in both locations, as well as intelligence data that allowed the operational conditions of the rescue,” the Israeli military statement detailed.
During the operation, Israelis Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were rescued, captives during 246 days of war in which more than 37,000 Gazans have already died, mostly women and children.
With this rescue, of the 251 kidnapped on October 7, 116 captives remain in the enclave, at least 40 of them dead according to Israel. In addition, there have been four hostages for years, of which two have died.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Israel and Hamas only reached a one-week truce agreement at the end of November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Additionally, Hamas freed four hostages in October, while seven were rescued by the Israeli Army, including the four yesterday. The bodies of 20 hostages have been recovered, three of whom were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops.
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