Hamas says three other hostages killed in Israeli rescue operation

The armed wing of the Islamist group Hamasthe Al Qasam Brigades, announced today that three other hostages, including one with North American citizenship, died yesterday during the rescue operation in which four captives were freed in Gaza.

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The group did not identify the dead or provide any details about their identities.

According to an almost one-minute video released by the group, All three died as a result of the military operation deployed by Israel in the Nuseirat refugee camp.center of the Strip, in which, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 270 Palestinians died in bombings and nearly 680 were injured.

“Your captives will not be released unless our prisoners are free,” Al Qasam reiterated in the video, referring to the 120 hostages, many of them already dead, who remain in the hands of Hamas.

Already yesterday, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the al Qasam Brigades, assured that other captives held in the area had died. “The enemy managed to free some of their captives by committing horrible massacres, but at the same time he killed some of them during the operation,” he said in a statement without providing further evidence.

The Israeli Army confirmed today in a statement that its warplanes attacked “dozens of military objectives to achieve the success of the operation”, while the Hamas Government today identified among the Palestinian dead 64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people.

“The operation was carried out after many weeks (…) where preliminary information on the whereabouts of the hostages in both places was collected, as well as intelligence information, which allowed the operational conditions of the rescue“, detailed the military statement.

In the military operation, Israelis Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were rescued, captives during 246 days of war in which more than 37,000 Gazans have already died, mostly women and children.

With this rescue, of the 251 kidnapped on October 7, 116 captives remain in the enclave, at least 40 of them dead according to Israel; while there have been four other hostages for years, two of them dead.

Since the war began, Israel and Hamas only reached a one-week truce agreement in late November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Additionally, four hostages were released by Hamas in October; seven rescued by the Army – counting the four from yesterday -; and the bodies of 20 hostages have been recovered, three of whom Israeli troops killed by mistake.

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