Rome, 10 June. (askanews) – Hamas leaders have ordered fighters dealing with Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip to “shoot the prisoners if they think Israeli forces are coming”. This is what Israeli officials told the New York Times. This could explain the deaths of three hostages reported by Hamas after last Saturday’s Israeli raid in Nuseirat, central Gaza, in which four hostages were freed. Their death, if confirmed, could have occurred at the hands of the militiamen, and not in Israeli air strikes, as claimed by the Palestinian group. The Israeli army has denied what Hamas said.
In fact, American and Israeli officials said, the rescue operations in the Gaza Strip represent “an exception,” so much so that American officials are pressuring Israel and Hamas to agree to a deal that would include the release of the hostages as part of a truce.
According to the NYT “a small group of hostages would be held near Yahya Sinwar”, leader of Hamas in Gaza, used as “human shields”.
US sources have made it known that the Hamas leader “moved around Gaza, also hiding in Rafah for a certain period, and has now probably returned to Khan Younis, the second largest city in Gaza”, where “the network of tunnels it is vast, and neither the United States nor Israel have been able to determine its precise location.”
