Hamas fighters shoot dead one Israeli hostage and wounded two others

Hamas fighters have shot dead one Israeli hostage and wounded two others, the group has declared, in the first public admission it has harmed prisoners taken from Israel on October 7. The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades – the militarised wing of Hamas – said in a statement yesterday that two of its fighters ‘assigned to guard’ the hostages had fired at them in ‘two separate incidents’.

One male hostage was killed, while two female hostages sustained gunshot wounds and are feared to be in critical condition. ‘Attempts are underway to save their lives,’ Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram.

He went on to declare the Israeli government is committing ‘massacres’ in Gaza and must therefore bear responsibility for ‘the resulting reactions that affect the lives of Zionist prisoners’. Though dozens of other hostages have died in Hamas captivity since October 7, the group had never previously admitted to killing its captees, claiming their deaths came as a result of Israeli bombardment.

Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Avichay Adraee in response issued a tight-lipped statement on social media platform X that the Palestinian group had ‘published a written report claiming that in two separate incidents, Hamas activists killed an Israeli captive and wounded two women captives’. ‘At this stage there is no intelligence document to confirm or refute Hamas’s allegations. We continue to investigate the credibility of the statement and will provide information where we have it,’ Adraee concluded. The non-committal statement was echoed by the IDF’s Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari who said: ‘We will update as soon as possible with any information we have.’

In the days following Hamas’ ruthless October 7 attacks, there were fears that Israeli hostages would face [punishment] and executions – threats made by the same Hamas spokesperson that yesterday declared one of the hostages had been shot dead. Many of the hostages were later released amid a brief ceasefire, but dozens of the captees are believed to have died in Gaza. More than 70 Israeli hostages are thought to remain alive, with representatives of Israel, Hamas and international mediators engaged in ongoing ceasefire talks.

But the shooting of the Israeli hostages in captivity this week comes as tensions are soaring in the region amid heightened fears that Iran is set to launch a major attack on Israel following the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. The United States and European allies yesterday called on Iran to ‘stand down’ in an effort to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East , with Washington rushing a missile submarine and an aircraft carrier group to the region in a show of support for its key ally.

Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have vowed revenge for the killing of the political leader of the Palestinian group Hamas in Tehran, and of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut. ‘We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place,’ US President Joe Biden and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Britain said in a joint statement yesterday.

The White House warned that a ‘significant set of attacks’ by Iran and its proxies was possible as soon as this week, saying that Israel shared the same assessment. As the frantic diplomacy continued, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both called on Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to de-escalate the situation. Pezeshkian said Monday his country has the ‘right to respond to aggressors.’ Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh had been in Tehran for the new Iranian president’s inauguration last month when he was killed in an attack that Iran has blamed on Israel.

Israel assassinated Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut a day earlier, leaving the region on edge. IDF spokesman Hagari said yesterday that his country was ‘ready to foil any threat in real time’ but added that he was ‘not familiar’ with reports that Iran was expected to launch an attack in the next 24 hours. Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the country had strengthened defences and organised ‘offensive options’ as ‘threats from Tehran and Beirut may materialise’.

Washington and the four European nations have also intensified their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, regarding the conflict sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as the root cause of the tensions in the Middle East. They backed a call by Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar for renewed talks between Israel and Hamas this Thursday, ‘and stressed there is no further time to lose.’ They also called for ‘unfettered’ delivery of aid to devastated Gaza, where 93 people are believed to have been killed on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinians. Israel said it targeted militants operating out of the school and mosque. The IDF’s incessant bombing and military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,897 people, according to a new toll from the territory’s health ministry.

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