The Islamist group Hamas has offered for today, Sunday, the release of two other captive women, Nurit Yitzhak and Yovheved Lifshitz, “following the same steps as with the two American hostages,” the group said in a statement broadcast on its Telegram channel.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the al-Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, assured that he had previously proposed the release of both “for compelling humanitarian reasons and without asking for anything in return,” but as he said, “Israel refused to receive them.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the accusation and called it “lying propaganda.”
“Israel will continue to do everything necessary to bring home all captives and missing people,” the Israeli prime minister added.
The alleged offer comes as Israel and Hamas enter their 16th day of war in Gaza today, and after Israeli authorities reported yesterday that Palestinian militias are holding 210 people captive in the strip.
The kidnappings continue to spark protests from families and Israelis who demand the immediate release of the hostages, among whom there are women, the elderly and about 30 minors. According to Israel, most of the hostages are alive.
On Friday, Hamas released two American hostages for “humanitarian reasons,” with the mediation of Qatar, which appears to remain involved in indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas.
The two released were a mother and daughter with US citizenship who turned themselves in “to demonstrate to the American people and the world that the claims made” by the Joe Biden Administration against Hamas “were false,” according to the Islamist group.
Last Wednesday, the group released the first proof of a hostage’s life, a video in which the French-Israeli Mia Schem, 21, was seen and heard, who said she was fine and wanted to return home. while someone was bandaging a wound on his arm.
Shortly after, in another video, Abu Obeida offered to release the hostages with foreign passports – many are Israelis with a second nationality – whom he said they consider their “guests.”
The more than two hundred hostages who remain in the hands of the Palestinian militias in Gaza were kidnapped in the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which sparked a war that has already entered its third week.
The conflict has so far resulted in more than 1,400 people dead in Israel – largely civilians – and at least 4,469 people dead in Gaza due to Israeli bombings, among whom more than 70% are minors, women and the elderly.
Meanwhile, the intense Israeli air attacks against the Strip continue, which include civil infrastructure such as homes, schools, hospitals or places of worship where thousands of people in the enclave take refuge from the bombs; and the Islamist militias in Gaza continue to fire rockets, more than 7,000 since the war began.
