Hamas confirms that it doesn’t know whether the Israeli prisoners detained in Gaza are alive or dead!
A member of Hamas’s political leadership, Basem Naim, said that Hamas has no information regarding who is alive and who is dead of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Naim explained, “We don’t know exactly who is alive and who is dead, whether they were killed by bombing or by famine”.
He added, “There are prisoners held by multiple groups and in multiple places”.
According to an early assessment, there is around 250 people were taken hostage, 130 of whom are still in captivity, according to Israel, which estimates that 31 of them were killed in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile death toll among Palestinians in Gaza reached 30,535 people, most of them are Women and children, since Hamas attack on October 7, last year.
The Israeli hostages issue represent the core of the negotiations currently taking place in Cairo that aim to reach a calm in Gaza, about five months after the start of the conflict.
The mediating countries, Egypt, Qatar and the United States, are seeking to reach an agreement before the month of Ramadan, which falls on March 10 or 11.
Israeli media report that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government insists that Hamas submit a list of the names of the 130 hostages still being held in Gaza, and it didn’t send a delegation to Cairo, unlike Hamas, because Hamas didn’t submit this list.
For its part, Hamas insists on a complete ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces before any agreement on the release of prisoners.
In a related context, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday that the United States is working to bring aid into Gaza through the largest possible number of channels to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe there in the midst of the war that Israel is waging with Hamas, describing the situation “unbearable”.
Miller added that Washington is optimistic that a new sea route to deliver aid to Gaza can complement current efforts to deliver aid to the Strip, noting that this road is still in the development stage.
In addition to the trucks transporting aid through two border crossings in southern Gaza, the US military cooperated with a number of allied countries during the past few days to drop aid packages into Gaza by air, amid warnings that most of the population is on the brink of starvation.
“The situation is simply intolerable, which is why the United States is focused on increasing and sustaining aid in Gaza through as many channels as possible,” Miller said in a press conference.
Washington emphasizes that airdrops and sea routes complement land deliveries, and has also asked Israel to open a border crossing in northern Gaza to deliver aid.
Miller added, “These efforts aren’t and cannot be a substitute for the significant aid that the United Nations is distributing to northern Gaza… We’ll continue to pressure the government of Israel to facilitate increased aid to the north”.
He said that Washington isn’t satisfied at all with Israel’s efforts.
The US administration is calling for Israel to make more efforts to address the humanitarian situation have increased since the killing of Palestinians who were queuing to receive aid in Gaza last week.
