Hamas official says ‘no one has any idea’ how many Israeli hostages are still alive

Beirut, Lebanon
CNN
—

The fate of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza is crucial to any agreement to end the protracted and bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas. But a senior Hamas official told CNN that “no one has any idea” how many of them are alive, and that any deal to free them must include guarantees of a ceasefire. permanent fire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

In an interview with CNN, Hamas spokesperson and politburo member Osama Hamdan, providing insight into the militant group’s position on stalled ceasefire talks, asked if Hamas regretted his decision to attack Israel given the rising Palestinian death toll, and commented on the leak earlier this week of messages from its Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, the man seen as the ultimate decision-maker on any peace deal .

The United States believes Hamas holds the key to the talks. “The horse-trading must stop,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on NBC on Thursday, urging Sinwar to end the war. “It is relatively safe underground; the people he claims to represent suffer every day.

Speaking to CNN in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, Hamdan said the latest proposal on the table – an Israeli plan first announced publicly by US President Joe Biden late last month – did not meet the requirements of the group aiming to end the war.

Hamdan, who served on Hamas’s negotiating team on the ground, told CNN that the group needed “a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza and let the Palestinians determine their own future, the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege… and we are ready to discuss a fair agreement on the exchange of prisoners.

Negotiations on the U.S.-backed proposal have intensified in recent days, but appeared to stall on Wednesday after Hamas presented its response to the document, 12 days after it was first received.

Blinken expressed frustration with what he called Hamas’ decision to propose “many changes,” describing some of them as going “beyond positions previously taken by Hamas.”

“Some changes are achievable. Some are not,” Blinken said at a news conference in Doha on Wednesday.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire plan approved Monday by the United Nations Security Council calls for a phased approach. In the first phase, there would be a six-week ceasefire during which some hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and the Israeli army would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza. The second phase – a definitive end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza – would only be implemented after further negotiations between the two sides.

But Hamdan told CNN that the duration of the ceasefire was a key issue for Hamas, which is concerned that Israel has no intention of following through on the second phase of the deal. . The end of hostilities must be permanent, he said, and Israel must completely withdraw from Gaza.

“The Israelis only want a ceasefire for six weeks and then they want to start fighting again, which I think the Americans, so far, have not convinced the Israelis to accept (a ceasefire). (permanent fire),” he said, adding that he believes the United States must convince Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire as part of the deal.

Israel has not yet publicly committed to the deal, although the White House has repeatedly stressed that it is an Israeli plan that the government has agreed to. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been pressured to announce his support for the current plan, has repeatedly said the war will not end until Israel eliminates Hamas.

Blinken told NBC that Netanyahu “reconfirmed” to him “that Israel supported this proposal and was prepared to say yes” when he saw it a few days ago, and placed the blame for the stalled negotiations squarely on Hamas.

“Hamas must demonstrate that it too wants to put an end to this situation. If so, we can put a stop to it. If not, that means they want the war to continue,” Blinken said.

Speaking to CNN in a modest office decorated with a large map of Gaza and a panoramic photo of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Hamdan repeatedly sidestepped any questions about Hamas’ role in the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. . He called the October 7 terrorist attacks, which sparked the current war in Gaza, a “reaction against the occupation.”

The October 7 attack was the deadliest attack in Israeli history. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and have also taken some 250 people hostage in Gaza.

Israel was quick to retaliate, immediately declaring war on Hamas and launching an intense bombing campaign followed by a ground invasion several weeks later.

This operation had a devastating impact on Palestinians in Gaza. More than 37,000 people were killed, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Strip’s health ministry. It is estimated that around 90% of people living in the territory have been displaced by the fighting.

Although Gaza authorities do not distinguish between civilian casualties and those of Hamas fighters, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson previously admitted that the majority of those killed in the operation were civilians.

Asked repeatedly by CNN whether Hamas regretted its decision to attack Israel, Hamdan responded by blaming Israel for the situation and saying the attack was “a reaction against the occupation.”

“The one responsible for this is the (Israeli) occupation. If you resist the occupation, (they) will kill you, if you did not resist the occupation, (they) will also kill you and expel you from your country. So what are we supposed to do, just wait? “, did he declare.

Hamdan also called false reports that Sinwar suggested the deaths of thousands of Palestinians were “necessary sacrifices.”

Sinwar has not been seen in public since the October 7 attacks. He is believed to be hiding in Gaza, somewhere inside the network of tunnels that runs beneath the strip. He has been designated as a terrorist by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields and earlier this week the Wall Street Journal published what it says are leaked messages from Sinwar to other Hamas leaders in which he would have expressed his uncompromising determination to continue the fighting, whatever the situation. human cost.

Hamdan told CNN the messages “were false.”

“These were false messages written by someone who is not Palestinian and which were sent to the Wall Street Journal as part of the pressure against Hamas and the provocation of the people against the leader,” he said. he declared without providing evidence. “No one can accept the murder of Palestinians, of their own people. »

When Israel launched its war against Hamas, Netanyahu said the goals were to “destroy Hamas and return the hostages held in Gaza.”

But more than eight months later, the goal of completely eliminating the group seems unachievable. While the IDF has killed some Hamas commanders, Gaza’s top leaders, including Sinwar, continue to elude them. And despite the damage to its infrastructure, Hamas also continues to fire rockets toward Israel, albeit much more sporadically than at the start of the conflict.

U.S. intelligence officials believe Sinwar likely believes Hamas can survive the Israeli attempt to destroy it.

At the same time, Netanyahu is under increasing pressure to reach a deal guaranteeing the return of the remaining hostages in Gaza. Israel estimates that more than 70 of the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza are alive.

Speaking to CNN, Hamdan said he did not know how many were still alive. “I’ve no idea. Nobody has a clue,” he said, claiming – without providing any evidence – that the Israeli operation to free four of the hostages on Saturday resulted in the deaths of three others, including a US citizen.

It is feared that more hostages are dead than publicly believed. In April, Hamas told international mediators that it was unable to meet Israel’s demand to release 40 of the remaining hostages in the first phase of the deal, including all the women as well as the sick and elderly men, because he did not hold 40 living hostages. hostages who meet these criteria for release.

Opposition leader Benny Gantz, who left Israel’s war cabinet last weekend, was asked by an Israeli television station on Thursday whether Israel knew how many hostages were alive. He responded by saying: “We know (a) very close number,” he replied.

Asked about the testimony of a doctor who treated the freed hostages and said they suffered mental and physical abuse and were beaten hourly, Hamdan again blamed Israel for their suffering.

“I believe that if they have mental problems, it is because of what Israel did in Gaza. Because (no one can) handle what Israel is doing, bombing every day, killing civilians, killing women and children… they have seen it (with) their own eyes,” he said, adding that Comparing images of the hostages taken before and after the eight-month captivity shows “that they were better than before” – a claim that is demonstrably false.