Hamas claims foiling Israel attempt to free hostage in Gaza City

Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, said Monday that it had thwarted an Israeli attempt to free a hostage in Gaza City, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement, the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said Israeli forces sneaked into a place in the Bureij refugee camp to free an Israeli hostage.

Hamas said that its fighters engaged in clashes with the Israeli forces, inflicting casualties among soldiers.

There was no comment yet from the Israeli army on the claim.

Hamas is believed to be holding nearly 136 Israeli hostages in the blockaded Territory following its cross-border attack on 7 October.

Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the enclave since 7 October, killing at least 23,084 Palestinians and injuring 58,926 others, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

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