We continue to pray for peace! Lord have mercy!
Despite initially denying any role in the deaths of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered on Saturday, Hamas appeared to admit responsibility in a statement Monday evening.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida on Monday blamed Netanyahu and the IDF for the Hamas killing of the hostages, saying “they deliberately disrupted any deal.”
“Only Netanyahu and the occupation army bear full responsibility for the killing of the prisoners after they deliberately disrupted any deal to exchange prisoners for their personal and narrow interests, in addition to their deliberate killing of dozens of them through direct aerial bombardment,” Obaida said in the statement.
The Hamas spokesman also claimed that “new instructions were issued” to the guards watching over the hostages, implying that the guards are ordered to kill the hostages if IDF troops come near.
“We say to everyone clearly that after the Nuseirat incident [referring to Operation Arnon, in which Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrei Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were rescued from captivity], new instructions were issued to the Mujahideen assigned to guard the prisoners regarding dealing with them if the occupation army approached their place of detention.”
“Netanyahu’s insistence on liberating the prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding a deal will mean that they will return to their families inside coffins and their families will have to choose whether they are dead or alive.”
At the same time as Obaida’s statement was released, Hamas posted a picture to their Telegram channel, showing an Israeli hostage seated on the ground with a Hamas guard holding a pistol. More Here