IDF: ‘At this stage, there is no intelligence document to confirm or refute Hamas’s allegations.’
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Hamas announced on its Telegram channel Monday that a terrorist guarding hostages murdered one male captive and severely wounded two female hostages.
This is the first time the terror group has confessed to killing or harming hostages since it usually blames casualties on Israeli airstrikes.
The spokesperson for Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, blamed the harming of the hostages on Israeli “massacres” occurring in Gaza.
Ubaida wrote on Telegram, “The enemy government [Israel] bears full responsibility for these massacres and the resulting reactions that affect the lives of Zionist prisoners.”
Hamas said it is conducting an internal investigation of the incident and will try to save the lives of the wounded female captives.
The IDF said it can neither confirm nor deny Hamas’s statements on Telegram, and it is investigating the claims.
Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division of the IDF spokesperson’s Unit, posted in Arabic on X, “In the last few minutes, the terrorist group Hamas published a written report claiming that in two separate incidents, Hamas activists killed an Israeli [male] captive and wounded two women captives.”
He added, “At this stage there is no intelligence document to confirm or refute Hamas’ allegations. We continue to investigate the credibility of the statement and will provide information where we have it.”
As hostage release talks are set to resume, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said that, according to intelligence, there are between 20 and 35 surviving hostages in the “humanitarian” category to be released in the first phase of the agreement.
Speaking before the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Gallant said, “The number of hostages who are still alive within the humanitarian category is between 20 – 35, depending on the interpretation,” as reported by Kan.
In the first phase of the hostage agreement, 33 female, elderly, and ill or wounded hostages would be released. The number would depend on which hostages will be categorized as wounded or ill.
Israel said it would strive to maximize the number of hostages released.