Hamas issued its strongest messaging about the Israeli hostages in Gaza Thursday night, saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza City ground incursion means that Israel has lost any chance of getting its hostages out of the territory – dead or alive.
In a message written in Hebrew and addressed to the Israeli military and leadership, Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said that Netanyahu had effectively issued a death sentence for the hostages.
“Your prisoners are distributed within the neighborhoods of Gaza City, and we will not be concerned for their lives as long as Netanyahu has decided to kill them. The commencement of this criminal operation and its expansion means that you will not receive any prisoner, neither alive nor dead, and their fate will be the same as that of (Ron Arad),” it said.
Arad is an Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer who went missing in action in 1986 in Lebanon and who is believed to have been captured by the military group Amal and later handed over to Hezbollah.
In a subsequent statement, Hamas said that they were preparing to fight and that, “Gaza will be a graveyard for your soldiers.”
CNN has reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
Hamas’ statement comes as public anger against Netanyahu and his government continues to mount inside Israel, with the weekly demonstrations in Tel Aviv demanding an end to the war and a ceasefire reaching a fever pitch – with some hostage families leading the fury.
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin speaks during a news conference on Thursday, September 18. – IDF
On Thursday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin sought to reassure the hostage families after being pressed by a reporter on whether the IDF knew where the hostages are.
“The hostages are always in our thoughts,” Defrin said, adding: “We will do everything to avoid harming them.”
However, many hostage families have also said Israel’s plans to take the city will be a death sentence for their loved ones. There are 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed alive.
In video shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum this week, Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, stands outside Netanyahu’s house with other hostage families, yelling in anguish.
In an image taken from video shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Einav Zangauker, center, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, stands outside Netanyahu’s house with other hostage families, yelling in anguish. – Hostages and Missing Families Forum
“Come out and tell me how you lied to my face and told me that you were going to bring an agreement and bring everyone back. Come out and tell me how you lied to me,” Zangauker screams in the video.
Meanwhile, international condemnation of Israel’s actions continues to mount, with the European Union – Israel’s biggest trading partner – proposing sanctions and a United Nations Commission report that concluded that Israel is committing genocide.
Israel has denied the accusation.
In this picture taken from the Israeli border with Gaza, smoke rises over destroyed buildings in the besieged Palestinian territory on Thursday, September 18. Israeli tanks and jets pounded Gaza City, the target of a major ground offensive, on September 18 prompting Palestinians to flee south. – Maya Levin/AFP/Getty Images
Ahead of the long-anticipated ground incursion, Israel’s military accelerated its airstrikes and its bombardment of high-rise towers in Gaza City – the enclave’s most populous.
Approximately one million people – nearly half of the territory’s population – live in and around Gaza City. Israel has tried to force the local population to evacuate, but there are increasingly few safe places in Gaza to go. Palestinians continue to flee the north by foot, car and bike – carrying what they can to the increasingly crowded south.
Displaced Palestinians transport their belongings on their fishing board as they flee Israeli bombardment southward, by sea from the Gaza City port on Thursday, September 18. – Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images
On Thursday, the IDF estimated less than half of the city’s residents – 450,000 people – were left, numbers which CNN cannot independently confirm.
The new assault comes as the United Nations and others have warned that it will only deepen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with parts of the Gaza officially declared under famine.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Thursday said that four people, including a child, had died from malnutrition over the last 24 hours, bringing the number of famine-related deaths to 435 since the beginning of the war.
Over 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since October 7, 2023.
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