GAZA STRIP: Hamas said on Wednesday that seven hostages from its Oct. 7 attacks, including three foreign passport holders, were killed in Israel’s bombing of Gaza’s largest refugee camp.
Dozens of bodies were seen on Tuesday at the Jabalia camp where Israel said it killed a Hamas military commander in a strike on a tunnel complex.
“Seven detainees were killed in the Jabalia massacre yesterday, including three holders of foreign passports,” said a Hamas military wing statement.
The military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, previously announced that “almost 50” hostages had been killed in earlier raids.
Israel says that 240 hostages were taken when Hamas fighters crossed the border to stage raids.
The Israel military said its fighter jets “assassinated Ibrahim Biari, commander of the Jabalia brigade of the Hamas terrorist organization, who was one of those who directed the murderous terrorist attack on Oct. 7.” It added that “Hamas’s underground military infrastructure beneath these buildings collapsed,” in the strike and “many Hamas terrorists” were killed.
Facing growing domestic pressure, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said freeing the hostages is a priority of the military campaign.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, meanwhile, accused Israel of committing “massacres” to cover its own “defeats.”
Haniyeh accused Israel of “committing barbaric massacres against unarmed civilians.”
In a speech broadcast by Al Jazeera, he said: “Its villainy will not save them from resounding defeat.” Haniyeh said that ahead of the Oct. 7 attacks, Hamas had warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and his fascist government will continue their contentious policies.”
The Hamas leader cited the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, settler violence and attacks on holy sites including the Al-Aqsa Mosque in annexed East Jerusalem.
The self-exiled Hamas leader also stressed that there will be no regional stability unless Palestinians obtain their “legitimate rights to freedom, independence and return.”
