The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, said it had information that Israel intended to carry out a hostage rescue operation similar to one conducted in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp in June and threatened to “neutralise” the captives if such an operation took place, according to a Middle East Monitor report citing an internal statement seen by Reuters today.
In the internal statement dated 22 November, Hamas told its operatives not to consider any repercussions of following the instructions and said Israel was responsible for the fate of the captives. It did not say when any Israeli operation was expected to take place.
The revelations come as Israeli media cited Defence Minister Israel Katz said today that pressure on Hamas is increasing and this time “we will really be able to advance a hostage deal”.
Hamas had offered on 9 or 10 October 2023 to release all the civilian captives in exchange for Israeli occupation forces not entering the Strip, however Israel refused and launched its genocidal campaign on the Strip in which over 44,500 Palestinians have been killed, over 11,000 are missing and 105,000 injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged negotiations being held to release captives and agree to a ceasefire.
In June 2024, more than 270 Palestinian civilians were killed after Israeli occupation forces hid in aid trucks and launched an offensive in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp to release four Israeli captives. The massacre is thought to have been aided by the US, with reports that the captives were flown out of the Strip from the area near the US’s temporary pier. Washington has denied that its pier was used in the operation but said an Israeli helicopter was near the structure.
Not long after the so-called rescue operation, the US military announced that its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete and it was being dismantled.
