Curated By: Saurabh Verma
Last Updated: October 31, 2023, 23:29 IST
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes have killed 8,525 people, mainly civilians and including more than 3,500 children. (Image: Reuters file)
The Palestine-based organisation took more than 230 people hostage after the surprise attack on October 7 in which more than 1,400 people were killed
As Israeli bombardment in the Palestinian territory continues, Hamas on Tuesday said it will free foreign hostages “in the next few days” and vowed to turn Gaza into a “graveyard” for Israeli’s military.
The Palestine-based organisation took more than 230 people hostage after the surprise attack on October 7 in which more than 1,400 people were killed.
“We have informed intermediaries that we will release a certain number of foreigners in the next few days,” Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a televised address.
Five hostages have been released to date, including four after negotiations through a diplomatic backchannel and one following an operation by the Israeli army.
The announcement came as international warnings increased over the spiralling bloodshed and mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes have killed 8,525 people, mainly civilians and including more than 3,500 children.
Israeli troops and Hamas militants engaged in “fierce battles” in Gaza, where the dire humanitarian crisis spiralled and tearful Palestinian families scoured rubble in a desperate search for loved ones.
Footage from the Israeli military showed tanks and armoured bulldozers churning up bomb-scarred dirt tracks and troops searching shattered buildings for Hamas militants and the 240 hostages still missing.
Israel struck 300 targets during its fourth night of land operations in northern Gaza, launched after the bloodiest attack in its history when Hamas gunmen killed some 1,400 in a brutal cross-border raid, according to Israeli officials.
The army said its forces were “engaged in fierce battles with Hamas terrorists deep inside the Gaza Strip,” killing dozens of militants.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF denounced as “appalling” the soaring number of minors killed in the conflict.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else,” said UNICEF’s James Elder.
Gaza’s children, who number more than a million, were also at risk due to the lack of clean water, he said, warning that “child deaths — particularly infants — due to dehydration are a growing threat”.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed growing calls for a ceasefire with the Hamas group he has vowed to destroy while also seeking to liberate at least 240 hostages.
“Calls for a ceasefire are a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism,” he said late Monday.
“This will not happen.”
(With PTI inputs)
