Israel killed some of its hostages in Gaza camp rescue operation: Hamas’ armed wing

CAIRO - Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades said on June 8 that some hostages were killed in Israel’s hostage-freeing operation at al-Nuseirat refugee camp and nearby areas in central Gaza.

Israel, “by committing horrific massacres, was able to free some its hostages, yet it killed some others during the operation”, al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

Israeli forces

rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October

in a raid in Gaza on June 8, while over 200 Palestinians were killed in air strikes in the same area, according to Hamas officials, in one of the bloodiest Israeli assaults of the war.

It was not immediately clear if the hostage rescue and the Israeli air assault were part of the same operation, but both took place in Gaza’s al-Nuseirat, a densely built-up and often embattled area in the eight-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian territory’s ruling Islamist group.

The June 8 “operation will pose a great danger to the enemy hostages and will negatively impact their conditions and lives”, Mr Abu Ubaida added. REUTERS