Hamas officials have urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately halt his military's offensive on the Gaza Strip, warning that time is running out for those detained by the group to come home alive.
"The continuation of the aggression does not allow for the release of prisoners at all, let alone the possibility of liberating them through direct military operations," Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a video statement published Thursday.
"Therefore," Abu Obaida added, "if the enemy and its supporters want to capture them alive, they have no choice but to stop the aggression."
More than 100 of the roughly 242 people taken hostage amid the unprecedented Hamas-led surprise attack conducted against Israel on October 7 have since been freed, mostly during a week-long ceasefire that ended earlier this month. As negotiations unraveled, however, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has pressed on with its most intensive assault on Gaza to date with the goal of dismantling Hamas and rescuing those still held captive by the group and other Palestinian factions.
Abu Obaida's remarks came as Hamas continued to accuse the IDF of inadvertently killing hostages in its ongoing attacks. Footage released by the group alongside the appeals of hostages on Thursday carried the message, "We tried to keep them alive, but Netanyahu insisted on killing them."
Reached for comment, a Hamas spokesperson told Newsweek that "it is not known" how many of those seized by the group are still alive.
Also on Thursday, Hamas spokesperson and senior leader Ghazi Hamad announced that the group had sent a "top delegation" to Egypt to "discuss the Israeli aggression on Gaza, efforts to end it, and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza as the quantities of aid that enters Gaza are very limited and don't reach all areas of Gaza."
He affirmed that "we will not hold any form of talks over prisoners exchange under the continuation of the Israeli genocidal war" but said Hamas was "open to any initiative that contributes to ending the aggression on our people."
Last week, the IDF acknowledged having killed three hostages after they were "mistakenly identified" as a threat during operations in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City. Netanyahu expressed sorrow over the incident but said that the military efforts to free the remaining hostages would continue.
Responding to Hamas' recent warnings, Israeli Prime Minister's Office spokesperson Tal Heinrich affirmed this determination, while also expressing an openness to all options to resolve the hostage crisis.
"The heavy military pressure that we exerted on Hamas is what created the conditions that led to the release of some of the hostages," Heinrich told Newsweek. "We will continue to pursue every avenue to bring about the release of all hostages."
"We will not rest until they come back home and until the Hamas terrorist regime is eliminated and is no longer in control of the Gaza Strip," she added.
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying in a video message released Wednesday that "we are continuing the war to the end."
"It will continue until Hamas is eliminated—until victory," Netanyahu said. "Whoever thinks that we will stop is detached from reality. We will not stop the fighting until all of the goals that we have set are achieved: The elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the removal of the threat from Gaza."
In a follow-up address published Thursday, he again emphasized his commitment to achieve Israel's two war goals and presented Hamas with the binary choice of "surrender or die." He suggested he would not tolerate the rule of either Hamas or the ruling Fatah faction of the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority in Gaza.
"And after we eliminate Hamas, I will use all my power to ensure that Gaza never again threatens Israel—neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan," Netanyahu said Thursday.
The remarks appear to run contrary to the plan released earlier this month by U.S. President Joe Biden's administration. The framework would see the Palestinian National Authority reassert control of Gaza after Hamas' defeat, though President Mahmoud Abbas and his administration face a worsening decline in popularity among Palestinians and the plan has yet to win Israel's endorsement.
While the White House has continued to support Israel's campaign in Gaza politically and militarily, rifts between the two allies have emerged, especially as Biden and his top officials have called on Israel to do more to protect civilian lives.
Officials in Hamas-led Gaza estimate that more than 20,000 people have been killed, mostly women and children, since the war began. Israeli officials say about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the initial attack on Israel, and that 137 Israeli soldiers have been killed since ground operations began in Gaza in late October.
Speaking at a campaign reception in Bethesda, Maryland, on Wednesday, Biden said that Hamas has "no regard" for civilian life and that the presence of hostages in the group's captivity represented an "additional burden" for Israel. At the same time, he argued that "those added burdens do not lessen Israel's responsibility to distinguish between the Palestinian people and Hamas and to take care to minimize civilian deaths."
An IDF official recently told Newsweek that mounting international pressure, humanitarian concerns and the lives of hostages, among other factors, could be looked at through "different clocks" that are influencing the course of the military campaign in Gaza.
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Based in his hometown of Staten Island, New York City, Tom O'Connor is an award-winning Senior Writer of Foreign Policy ... Read more
