Hezbollah strikes north in latest revenge attacks for commander killed by Israel.
Missiles launched by terror group hit Mount Meron air traffic control base but IDF says ‘no harm to the unit’s capabilities’; Israeli strike targets terror operative in Lebanon.
Gallant rejects Macron’s proposed trilateral task force to defuse Hezbollah tensions.
G7 calls on Israel to stop hobbling PA; says UNRWA must operate unhindered in Gaza.
UK, France, Germany slam Iran for expanding nuclear program, ‘hollowing out’ deal.
Sweden releases convicted war criminal in swap with Iran.
( Hamid Noury, who was involved in 1988 mass executions, exchanged for two Swedish nationals; EU vows to work for freedom of other Europeans who it says are arbitrarily detained.)
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‘No one has any idea’ how many hostages are still alive, Hamas official says.
Hamas politburo member in Beirut, Osama Hamdan denies rescued hostages were subjected to abuse in Gaza; claims WSJ report that Sinwar praised Gazan civilian deaths is ‘fake message’.
“No one has any idea” how many of the 116 remaining hostages in Gaza who were kidnapped from Israel on October 7 are still alive, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told CNN on Thursday.
“I don’t have any idea about that. No one has any idea about this,” he said, while denying that the four hostages rescued by Israeli forces last weekend had been abused during their more than eight months in the terror group’s captivity.
“I believe if they have mental problems, this is because of what Israel has done in Gaza,” Hamdan told CNN in Beirut, upon being pressed on the testimony of a doctor who treated the rescued Israelis and said they were beaten “almost every day” and suffered from malnutrition.
The status of the remaining hostages is a key topic in negotiations for a potential deal between Israel and the terror group, which triggered the war on October 7, when thousands of terrorists poured into southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Hamas has refused to provide a list of the hostages still living, and has only sporadically provided signs of life for some captives, mainly in the service of propaganda.
As part of a potential deal, Israeli negotiators have demanded that living hostages be released before dead bodies, while Hamas negotiators have sought deals that would allow them to release an indeterminate number of bodies in place of living captives.
In the interview, Hamdan — who in the past has promoted antisemitic medieval blood libels — called the proposed deal to release Israeli hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners a “positive step,” but refused to endorse it.
“We need a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and [to] let the Palestinians determine their future by themselves,” he said.
In November, Hamas released 105 civilian hostages over the course of seven days in exchange for a temporary ceasefire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails. That lull in fighting collapsed when Hamas began firing rockets into Israel and failed to provide a list of living hostages it intended to release by the deadline.
The terror group has asserted that any further hostage release will come only after Israel agrees to end the war altogether, with Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza and allowing the terror group to resume its position as the de facto government of the Strip, a demand publicly rejected by Israel.
Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s politburo, is seen speaking to CNN in Beirut, Lebanon, in a screenshot from this video posted to YouTube on June 14, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
