Hamas made a major hostage threat in a desperate move to keep Israel from completely exterminating them.
According to reports, Hamas is threatening to kill all the hostages if their demands are not met:
Hamas warned Sunday that no hostages would leave Gaza alive unless its demands for prisoner releases are met, while the World Health Organization said the territory’s health system was collapsing after more than two months of war.
In a televised statement, a Hamas spokesman said Israel will not receive “their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance.”
Senior Hamas official Bassem Neim said in late November the movement was “ready to release all soldiers in exchange for all our prisoners”.
Israel says there are still 137 hostages in Gaza, while activists say around 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails.
With so many terrorists giving up to Israel this week, Hamas is clearly getting desperate because the end is near for them…
On Sunday, a source close to Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP both groups were engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces near Khan Yunis, where an AFP journalist also reported heavy strikes, as well as Jabalia and Gaza City’s Shejaiya district in the north.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Hamas to give up.
“It is the beginning of the end of Hamas. I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for (Yahya) Sinwar. Surrender now,” he said, referring to the Hamas chief in Gaza.
The army said Sunday it struck more than 250 targets in 24 hours, including “a Hamas military communications site”, “underground tunnel shafts” in southern Gaza, and a Hamas military command centre in Shejaiya.
It says 98 soldiers have died and around 600 wounded in the Gaza campaign.
Some 7,000 “terrorists” have been killed, according to National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.
There’s no way Hamas is ever going to release all the hostages and that’s been clear from the beginning. It’s the only true leverage they have left over Israel and the world and unfortunately, Israel has to act as if they are lost if they want to finish exterminating Hamas from existence.