A woman reads at the site of the Supernova music festival in southern Israel as relatives and supporters of Israeli captives held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks, start of a four-day march to Jerusalem calling for their release. AFP
The movement acknowledged, in a statement on their Telegram channel, that their communication with the fighters responsible for guarding the captives had been severed, leading to the suspicion that some of the detainees had lost their lives in the attacks.
Hamas published the names of three of the Israeli detainees who had been killed and stated that the identities of the remaining four deceased captives would be announced later, once their identities had been verified.
The identified persons are; Haim Gershon Berry, Yoram Etak Metzger, and Amiram Israel Cooper.
Furthermore, Hamas emphasized that the number of detainees killed as a consequence of the Israeli army's military operations in the Gaza strip may now exceed 70 individuals.
The movement expressed its longstanding commitment to preserving the lives of captives, but it lamented that the Israeli leadership appeared to be intentionally targeting and killing its own captives in an attempt to evade this complex issue.
The statement also highlighted that, following thorough examination and scrutiny over recent weeks, it had been confirmed that some of the resistance fighters had been martyred.
During Al- Aqsa Flood operation on 7 October roughly 250 were taken as war prisoners by the Palestinian groups.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
The first and only cease-fire in the war, in late November, brought about the release of about 100 captives — mostly women, children, and foreign nationals — in exchange for about 240 Palestinians children and women detained by Israel, as well as a brief halt in the fighting.
Roughly 130 captives were belived to remain in Gaza, however in light of the recent changes the number may be halved.
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