The al-Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas, announced on Saturday that another nine hostages – including four foreigners – had died in the last 24 hours as a result of heavy Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the eighth day of war. between Palestinian militias and Israel.
Al Qasam, who on the 7th led the land invasion of Israel and kidnapped between 130 and 200 people, said this Saturday in a statement that nine hostages died as a result of the attacks ” in places where they are prisoners”, and elaborates on that. among the dead there were four foreigners, whose nationality was not specified.
Hamas announced on Friday the death of 13 hostages in the bombings, as well as four more hostages on Monday, bringing the number of hostages killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza to 26.
Hostages as money
The militias want to use the hostages as bargaining chips to release Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, while Israel does not yet have a clear figure on how many people may be arrested, as it is still looking for missing persons and trying to identify the hundreds of bodies of the more than 1,300 killed by Hamas attacks by land, sea and air on Saturday.
Just this Friday, Israeli troops made a local raid in Gaza to follow the trail and look for the hostages, and according to local media, they found many bodies.
The Israeli Army has informed about 120 families that their relatives are captives in Gaza. This Friday, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch, said that he is working on diplomatic initiatives to find ways to free those captured, and assured that he is asking for help from Egypt and Turkey regarding this.
Israel has never experienced a hostage capture of such magnitude as last week, where the Hamas offensive caught it completely off guard and sparked the current war, which has already left more than 2,200 dead in Gaza.
