GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Hamas Movement has emphasized that the exchange of prisoners is the only way for the Israeli captives to return alive to their families.
In a statement on Thursday, Hamas warned that any Israeli attempt to retrieve captives by military force or return to war would only result in their killing.
“During the ceremony that was held for the handover of prisoners’ bodies, al-Qassam Brigades and the resistance were keen on preserving the inviolability of the dead and considering their families’ feelings, although the occupation army did not care about their safety while they were still alive,” Hamas said.
“We preserved the lives of those prisoners, provided them with what we could, and treated them humanely, but their army killed them along with their captors,” Hamas added.
Hamas affirmed that the Israeli army killed its prisoners by bombing their detention places, holding the Israeli government fully responsible for their deaths after it repeatedly obstructed the efforts to reach a swap deal.
“Criminal Netanyahu, today, is pretending to cry over the bodies of his prisoners who returned to him in coffins, in a blatant attempt to evade responsibility for their killing in front of his audience,” Hamas added.
“We would have preferred to return your sons to you alive, but your army and government leaders chose to kill them instead of bringing them back. They killed alongside them 17,881 Palestinian children during their criminal attacks on Gaza. We know that you are aware whom is truly responsible for their departure. You are a victim of leaders who do not care about their citizens,” Hamas said, addressing the families of the slain captives who were handed over today to the Red Cross.
On Thursday morning, al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas and other resistance groups handed over the bodies of four Israeli captives to Red Cross representatives.
The delivered bodies included a mother and her two young children from the Bibas family, who were killed during one of the brutal Israeli attacks on Gaza during the war.
The handover of these bodies took place at the Bani Suheila cemetery in eastern Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, which had been destroyed and defiled by the Israeli occupation army during the war.
Later, Red Cross vehicles transferred the coffins to an Israeli military point in the Gaza Strip.
