Posted on 12/10/23
| News Source: NY Post
Hamas on Sunday threatened to kill all of its remaining hostages if demands such as more aid for Gaza and prisoner exchanges were not met, after suffering repeated losses in its battle with Israel.
The Palestinian terror group is still holding the bodies of 20 hostages who died in captivity, Israel said over the weekend.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, claimed Sunday that not another single kidnap victim will leave Gaza alive unless Israel agrees to all its demands in negotiations that broke down at the start of December. At least some of those demands have been for more aid for Gaza residents and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.
“Neither the fascist enemy and its arrogant leadership… nor its supporters… can take their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance,” Obeida said in a televised broadcast.
The ultimatum came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that of the 137 hostages believed to still be in Hamas custody, 20 are dead. More than 100 were freed in an aid and prisoner pact last month.
Hamas had previously accused Israel of killing hostages during its relentless airstrike campaigns in northern Gaza, with the allegations reiterated in a Hamas video by hostage Yarden Bibas, who blamed Netanyahu for the death of his wife and two young boys.
Israel slammed the claims as propaganda, and it has accused the terror group of stooping so low as to even refuse to hand over the bodies of its dead.
Hamas is allegedly trying to leverage the corpses in the stalled hostage exchange negotiations in hopes of freeing more Palestinians from Israeli prisons and seeing more aid trucks arrive in Gaza.