Hamas official says ‘no one has any idea’ how many Israeli hostages are still alive

[Pelican Press 0]

****** official says ‘no one has any idea’ how many ******** hostages are still alive

Beirut, Lebanon
CNN
 — 

The fate of the 120 remaining hostages in Gaza is crucial to any deal to end

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. But a senior ****** official has told CNN that “no one has an idea” how many of them are alive, and that any deal to release them must include guarantees of a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of ******** forces from Gaza.

In an interview with CNN, ****** spokesperson and political bureau member ****** Hamdan offered an insight into the militant group’s position on

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, a view on whether ****** regrets its decision to ******* ******* given the mounting ************ ****** toll, and a commentary on the ***** earlier this week of messages from its chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the man believed to be the ultimate decision-maker on any peace deal.

The US believes that ****** holds the key to the talks. “The haggling has to stop,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC on Thursday, urging Sinwar to end the war. “He’s relatively safe underground; the people that he purports to represent, they’re suffering every day.”

Speaking to CNN in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Hamdan said the latest proposal on the table – an ******** plan that was first publicly announced by US President Joe Biden late last month – did not meet the group’s demands for an end to the war.

Hamdan, who has been part of the ****** negotiations team on the ground, told CNN that the group needed “a clear position from ******* 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.”

Negotiations over the US-backed proposal have intensified in recent days but appeared to grind to a halt on Wednesday after ****** presented its response to the document, 12 days after first receiving it.

Blinken expressed frustration over what he said was ******’s decision to submit “numerous changes,” describing some of them as going “beyond positions (******) had previously taken.”

“Some of the changes are workable. Some are not,” Blinken said at a news conference in Doha on Wednesday.

The US-backed ceasefire plan that was approved by the ******* Nations Security Council on Monday lays out a phased approach. In the first phase, there would be a six-week ceasefire in which some hostages would be exchanged for ************ prisoners and the ******** military would pull out of populated areas in Gaza. The second phase – a permanent end to the war and full ******** withdrawal from Gaza – would only be implemented after further negotiations between the two sides.

But Hamdan told CNN the duration of the ceasefire was a key issue for ******, which is concerned that ******* has no intention of following through with the second phase of the deal. The end of hostilities must be permanent, he said, and ******* must withdraw from Gaza completely.

Abed Khaled/Reuters

People walk among debris, aftermath of ******** strikes at the area, where ******** hostages were rescued on Saturday, in Nuseirat ******** camp in central Gaza, on Sunday, June 9.

“The Israelis want the ceasefire only for six weeks and then they want to go back to the ******, which I think the Americans, till now, they did not convince the Israelis to accept (a permanent ceasefire),” he said, adding that he believes the US needs to convince ******* to accept a permanent ceasefire as part of the deal.

******* has not yet publicly committed to the deal, even though the White House has repeatedly stressed that it was an ******** plan that the government had accepted. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been under pressure to announce his support for the current plan, has repeatedly said that the war will not end until ******* eliminates ******.

Blinken told NBC that Netanyahu “reconfirmed” to him “that ******* supported this proposal and was ready to say yes” when he saw him couple of days ago, and placed the blame for stalled negotiations squarely on ******.

“****** has to demonstrate that it too wants this to end. If it does, we can bring it to an end. If it doesn’t, then it means that it wants the war to continue,” Blinken said.

Speaking to CNN inside a modest office decorated with a large map of Gaza and panoramic photo of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Hamdan repeatedly deflected any questions about ******’ role in the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. He called the October 7 ******* attacks, which sparked the current war in Gaza, “a reaction against the occupation.”

The October 7 ******* was the deadliest ******** in *******’s history. ****** and other ************ armed groups ******* more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and also took some 250 people ******** into Gaza.

******* was quick to retaliate, immediately declaring war on ****** and launching an intense campaign of bombardment followed by a ground invasion several weeks later.

That operation has had a devastating impact on the Palestinians of Gaza. More than 37,000 people have been *******, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the strip. Some 90% of people living in the territory are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting.

While the Gazan authorities do not distinguish between casualties among civilians and ****** fighters, a spokesperson for the ******* Defense Forces (IDF) has previously admitted the majority of those ******* in the operation were civilians.

Asked repeatedly by CNN whether ****** regretted its decision to ******* *******, Hamdan responded by blaming the situation on ******* and saying the ******* was “a reaction against the occupation.”

“The one who is in charge or responsible for that is (the ********) occupation. If you resist the occupation, (they) will ***** you, if you did not resist the occupation, (they) also will ***** you and deport you out of your country. So what we are supposed to do, just to wait?,” he said.

Hamdan also dismissed as fake reports that Sinwar suggested the deaths of thousands of Palestinians were “necessary sacrifices.”

Sinwar has not been seen in public since the October 7 attacks. He is believed to be hiding in Gaza, somewhere inside the tunnel network that runs underneath the strip. He has been designated as a ********** by the US, the ********* Union, the ******* Kingdom and other countries.

Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

******’ Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar attends a meeting with members of ************ groups in Gaza City on April 13, 2022.

******* has repeatedly accused ****** of using civilians in Gaza as human shields and earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published what it said were leaked messages from Sinwar to other ****** leaders in which he allegedly expressed an uncompromising determination to continue fighting, regardless of the human cost.

Hamdan told CNN the messages “were fake.”

“It was fake messages done by someone who is not ************ and (it) was sent (to the) Wall Street Journal as part of the pressure against ****** and provoking the people against the leader,” he said without providing evidence. “No one can accept the ******** of the Palestinians, of his own people.”

When ******* launched its war on ******, Netanyahu said the objectives were to “******** ****** and bring back hostages held in Gaza.”

But more than eight months on, the goal of eliminating the group completely appears unachievable. While the IDF has ******* some ****** commanders, the top leadership in Gaza, including Sinwar, continues to evade them. And despite the damage caused to its infrastructure, ****** also continues to ***** rockets towards *******, albeit much more sporadically than at the outset of the conflict.

********* intelligence officials believe that Sinwar likely believes ****** can survive *******’s attempt to ******** it.

At the same time, Netanyahu is under increasing pressure to reach a deal that would secure the return of the remaining hostages still in Gaza. ******* believes that more than 70 hostages of the more than 100 who are still held in Gaza to be alive.

Speaking to CNN, Hamdan said he didn’t know how many were still alive. “I don’t have any idea about that. No one has an idea about this,” he said, alleging – without providing any evidence – that the ******** operation to free four of the hostages on Saturday resulted in the deaths of three others, including an ********* citizen.

There are fears that more hostages may be ***** than are publicly known. In April, ****** told international mediators that it was not able to fulfill *******’s demand to free 40 of the remaining hostages in the first phase of a deal, including all the women as well as ***** and elderly men, because it did not hold 40 living hostages who match those criteria for release.

Opposition leader Benny Gantz, who quit the ******** war cabinet last weekend, was asked by an ******** TV channel on Thursday whether ******* knew how many hostages are alive. He responded by saying: “We know (a) very close number,” he responded.

Asked about the testimony of a doctor who treated the released hostages and said they suffered mental and physical ****** and were beaten every hour, Hamdan again blamed ******* for their suffering.

“I believe if they have mental problem, this is because of what ******* have done in Gaza. Because (no one can) handle what ******* is doing, ******** each day, ******** civilians, ******** women and children … they saw that (with) their own eyes,” he said, adding that comparing images of the hostages taken before and after the eight-months long captivity shows “they were better than before” – a claim that is demonstrably false.

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