Hamas planned to “neutralize” the remaining Israeli hostages once Israel launched a rescue operation to free them, and the terrorist group believed such a move was imminent.
In a Nov. 22 internal statement seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Hamas said Israel released four hostages captured in an Oct. 7 Hamas raid on the Gaza Strip's Nuseyrat camp in June. He said he believed that they were attempting to carry out a similar operation to the attack.
However, should such an attack occur, Hamas advised its operatives to “impose a neutralization order as an immediate and rapid response to any adventure by the enemy.”
The memo also asks the militants not to consider the consequences of following instructions, saying Israel is directly responsible for the fate of the hostages.
Hamas prisoners likely did something similar in February, when six hostages were taken to prison after an Israeli airstrike several hundred meters from the underground tunnels in Khan Yunis where they were hiding. He shot and killed six people. According to the New York Times.
According to the paper, the prisoners' bodies were found in Gaza over the summer.
The November statement also called on operatives to “enhance” living conditions for hostages, in line with guidelines issued after the bloody Nuseirat raid, which Palestinian officials said killed more than 200 people.
The organization's leadership circulated the statement through its intelligence division to various factions, but did not say when it expected an Israeli attack.
Israel did not respond to the threat, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that pressure on Hamas was gradually increasing and that Israel “could really move forward with the hostage deal.”
The Gaza operation, now in its second year, is in response to the October 7 attack in which armed Hamas fighters crossed the border and stormed Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. It's retaliation.
Since then, Israeli forces have reduced much of the enclave to rubble, killing more than 44,500 Palestinians and injuring many others, according to Palestinian estimates.
The Times added that about 100 prisoners remain under Hamas control.
with post wire
