The Al Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, announced this Thursday the death of 50 hostages in Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip, where the group has been in power since 2007.
In a statement, the spokesman for the Al Qassem Brigades, Abu Obeida, limited himself to reporting the death of 50 Israeli hostages as a result of the air strikes on Gaza, without providing further details.
“The Al-Qassem Brigades estimate that the number of Zionist hostages killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Zionist bombings and massacres has reached close to 50,” Hamas’ armed wing said on the digital platform Telegram, a statement that It was not possible to verify with independent sources.
Hamas, which uses the term “Zionists” to designate Israelis, had reported the deaths of 22 hostages on October 16.
This Thursday, hours before the statement from the Al Qassem Brigades, the spokesman for the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagari, had raised to 224 (instead of the previous 222) the number of hostages from his country captured by Hamas during the attack on September 7. October. in southern Israel, which left more than 1,400 dead, mostly civilians, and around five thousand injured.
“This figure has evolved based on the information we obtain. It will continue to evolve. Efforts to recover the hostages are an absolute priority,” guaranteed Daniel Hagari.
Last week, Abu Obeida had said there were a total of 250 hostages: 200 held by the Al-Qassem Brigades and 50 held by other Palestinian militias.
In recent days, Hamas has released four hostages: Judith and Natalie Raanan, a mother and daughter of North American nationality, last Friday; and Israeli elders Yochved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, on Monday.
According to data provided Wednesday by the Israeli Government, more than half of the hostages have foreign passports from about 25 countries. Among those kidnapped there are at least 54 people of Thai nationality.
In retaliation for the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip daily and has so far left at least 7,028 dead and 18,484 injured, according to data from the local Ministry of Health.
Source: TSF
