Palestinian resistance group Hamas said today that the death of six Israeli hostages while an air strike struck near where they were being held proves the failure of the military option to rescue the captives, reports Middle East Monitor.
The Israeli occupation army claimed yesterday that the six captives whose bodies were found in Gaza over the summer were probably shot dead by their captors in February, around the same time that an Israeli air strike hit near where they were being held in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
“The death of more captives at the hands of their army confirms the failure of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s theory of freeing the captives by force, and that military pressure does not free his hostages, but kills them,” Hamas said in a statement.
“Netanyahu is directly responsible for the death of dozens of the captives because he failed to reach an agreement,” the resistance group said.
“There is no alternative to stopping the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation forces, and [reaching] an exchange deal,” it stressed.
Israel, which according to prisoners’ groups has approximately 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons and an unknown number in detention centres set up since it launched its genocide in Gaza in October last year, estimates that there are 101 Israeli captives in Gaza. Hamas says that 33 Israeli captives were killed in indiscriminate Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to reach a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war.
