clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Hamas loses contact with group responsible for 4 Israeli hostages in Gaza

May 13, 2024 at 8:59 pm

Hamas’ military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades are present as the prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the United States of America, Egypt and Qatar, continues in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 29, 2023 [Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency]

Palestinian group, Hamas, said Monday it has lost contact with a group of fighters guarding four Israeli hostages following Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We have lost contact with a group of our Resistance fighters guarding four Zionist (Israeli) prisoners as a result of the barbaric Israeli bombing in the last 10 days,” Abu Obaida, a spokesman for the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said in a brief statement.

He identified one of the hostages as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American citizen who appeared in a video last month criticising the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and appealing for his release.

Hamas is believed to be holding nearly 130 Israeli hostages since its cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people on 7 October, 2023.

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 Palestinian group demands an end to Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip in return for any hostage swap deal with Tel Aviv.

Nearly 35,100 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 78,800 others injured in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In an interim ruling in January, The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) said it is “plausible” that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in the enclave.

READ: Israel intentionally targets Gaza’s social fabric: Palestinian researcher