A commander of Hamas’ elite Nukhba unit who was captured in Gaza urged his fellow terrorists to give up the fight and surrender just like he and his men did, according to a new interrogation video released Thursday.
Muhammad Nasser Suleiman Abu Namer, a Hamas operative since 2009, was filmed speaking to Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence officers about his capture inside a tunnel in Khan Younis.
Despite being armed with guns and explosives, Abu Namer said he and two other Hamas fighters refused to open fire on the Israeli forces knocking on their door, Ynet reports.
“We sat in the room, we placed all the weapons outside,” Abu Namer said. “We sat and we waited. When the army arrived, we put up our hands and surrendered.”
The Nukhba commander said he and the two other Hamas members, Hamis Safi and Iyad al-Astal, had made the decision to surrender as soon as the army was approaching.
Asked if he had any advice for his fellow terrorists, Abu Namer said they should follow his example.
“I recommend to everyone to surrender, because your destiny otherwise is to die,” he said.
Abu Namer’s arrest and interrogation is the latest publicized by Shin Bet, who have released video of other Hamas operatives slamming their own organization and calling on the terror group to surrender to the IDF.
The Israeli military is currently concentrating its firepower in southern Gaza, with multiple tunnel systems in Khan Younis destroyed as the IDF searches for the remaining 136 hostages who were kidnapped on Oct. 7.
The army is also hunting down Hamas’ top brass, including its chief political leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding out in Khan Younis.
With the war entering its fifth month, the death toll in Gaza is nearing 28,000, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health, which does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists.
The majority of Gaza’s nearly 2 million residents have now found themselves fleeing as far south as Rafah near the border with Egypt, with the city serving as the final bastion away from the fighting between Hamas and Israel.
With Israel expected to launch a ground incursion into Rafah, Egyptian officials have warned that it would lead to an “unbearable and catastrophic” scenario at the border.
“Continuing Israeli strikes on densely populated areas will create an unlivable reality,” said Ahmed Abu Zeid, a spokesperson for Cairo’s Foreign Ministry. “The Egyptian position on this has been very clear and straightforward: We are against this policy, and we will not allow it.”
US Secretary of State Antony also urged Israel to avoid unnecessary bloodshed in Rafah as America continues to demand that the Jewish state mitigate civilian casualties in Gaza.
“Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7. The hostages have been dehumanized every day since,” Blinken said at a news conference Wednesday. “But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.”
IDF Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss, who oversees the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division told CNN Sunday that there was no plan in place yet on how to minimize civilian deaths in Rafah. The IDF has yet to announce any updates on how it will ensure civilians won’t be caught in the crossfire.