A Hamas official insisted on Thursday that “no one knows” how many of the 120 Israeli hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip are still alive.
Osama Hamdan also referred to a recent ceasefire proposal, rejected by Hamas, which would have seen the terrorist group release some of the hostages it is holding in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Interview with CNN.
Israel believes more than 70 of the 120 hostages are still alive, but Hamdan insisted he did not know the exact figure.
“We don’t know anything about it,” he told CNN from his office in Beirut. “Nobody knows anything about this.”
He then made the shocking statement blaming Israel for the suffering of four hostages who were recently rescued by Israeli forces after doctors said they had been mentally and physically abused.
“If they have mental problems, I believe it is because of what Israel has done in Gaza,” he suggested outrageously.
He boldly claimed that the hostages had emerged from Gaza in better shape than when they were taken.
Hamdan also expressed no regret over Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel last October, which prompted Israel to launch a military operation in the Gaza Strip that killed thousands of Palestinians and reduced much of the strip to rubble.
He told CNN that the Hamas attacks were a “reaction to the occupation” and blamed Israel.
Hamdan then said: Wall Street Journal report It quoted Yahya Sinwar, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, as saying in a message leaked to other officials that the Palestinian deaths were a “necessary sacrifice.”
“This is a fake message sent by a non-Palestinian person to the Wall Street Journal as part of pressure on Hamas and public provocation against its leadership,” he said, without providing evidence.
“No one can accept the killing of Palestinians, their own people.”
The interview came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Hamas for rejecting a U.N.-backed ceasefire proposal that Blinken said was nearly identical to one Hamas put forward last month.
Hamdan argued that the proposed agreement did not meet the terror group’s demands to end the war.
Hamas “needs a clear Israeli position: accept a ceasefire, complete withdrawal from Gaza and let the Palestinians decide for themselves about reconstruction and their future (of lifting the blockade). We are ready to discuss a fair deal for a prisoner exchange,” he said.
