No one knows how many Israeli captives are alive in Gaza: Hamas official

A senior official of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says no one knows how many Israeli captives are still alive in the Gaza Strip.

Osama Hamdan, who is Hamas’ representative in Lebanon and also a member of the group’s politburo, spoke to CNN Friday about Israeli captives also falling victim to Tel Aviv war on the besieged Gaza.

Asked about the number of the captives held by Hamas, he said, “I don’t have any idea about that. No one has an idea about this.”

Recently, Israel attacked the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing more than 270 Palestinians,

The regime’s military said it had rescued four captives during the carnage.

The Hamas official said the Israeli raid killed three other captives, including an American citizen.

Israeli captives killed during Nuseirat air raids: Al-Qassam

Hamas military spokesman says Israeli forces killed captives in Nuseirat operation.

Asked about claims that the released Israeli captives had mental problems, he held the occupying regime responsible for their suffering.

“I believe if they have mental problem, this is because of what Israel have done in Gaza. Because (no one can) handle what Israel is doing, bombing each day, killing civilians, killing women and children … they saw that (with) their own eyes,” Hamdan said.

He also noted that comparing images of the captives taken before and after their captivity shows “they were better than before.”

Some 250 Israelis were taken captive on October 7 last year during a historic Hamas operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

A week-long truce deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 captives in return for some 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Israel believes over 100 of the captives are still held in the Gaza Strip and that more than 70 of them are alive.

Hamdan said the latest US-backed ceasefire plan did not meet Hamas’ demands for an end to the Israeli aggression against Gaza.

Hamas needed “a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves, the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege … and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners’ exchange,” he said.

"The Israelis want the ceasefire only for six weeks and then they want to go back to the fight,” he added, stressing that the US needs to convince the Tel Aviv regime to accept a permanent truce.

Israel unleashed its Gaza onslaught after the Hamas operation. It has killed at least 37,232 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 85,037 others in Gaza over the past more than eight months.

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