The Hamas terror group said on Monday (2) that more Israeli hostages will return home “in coffins” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government insists on trying to free them by means other than a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas issued the statement a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that the bodies of six hostages had been recovered from a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza.
According to CNN, the group released a statement saying its terrorists had received “new instructions” for dealing with hostages if the IDF approached, with a poster showing people being threatened at gunpoint.
“Netanyahu’s insistence on releasing the prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding an agreement will mean that they will return to their families in coffins and their families will have to choose whether they are alive or dead,” Abu Obaida, the spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said in the statement.
The day before, Hamas had claimed that the six hostages were killed by Israeli bombings, an argument it has used on other occasions.
During the October 7 attacks in Israel last year, Hamas kidnapped 251 people. After hostage exchanges for Palestinian prisoners, rescues of people alive and recoveries of bodies, Israel says there are still 101 hostages in Gaza, of whom 35 are believed to be dead.
On Monday, Netanyahu said there would be retaliation for the deaths of the six hostages. “We will exact a heavy price from Hamas. I will not say what the price will be and what we will do, there will be an element of surprise here,” the prime minister said at a news conference.
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