GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) A senior source in the Hamas Movement said that the Israeli occupation government is engaged in a systematic deception process of the Israeli public and the families of the captives held by the resistance, in order to evade any responsibility towards them.
The source denied the validity of what has been circulated by Israeli media outlets close to the occupation government, that Hamas proposed the release of only 20 prisoners instead of 40 during the first stage of the recently proposed agreement during the Cairo negotiations. The source said, “Following this claim, Hebrew media reports emerged indicating that the remaining prisoners alive do not exceed twenty, which contradicts reality.”
The source said, “It is certainly impossible to accurately determine the number of prisoners, who are still alive, but the number is certainly more than the figure circulated in the Hebrew media.”
He revealed that “the Movement alone has about 30 generals and Shin Bet officers who were captured on October 7th from highly sensitive military units and locations.” He emphasized that “these individuals are specifically in heavily secured and inaccessible locations far from the reach of the occupation, and it is impossible to reach them under any circumstances.” At the same time, he indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and some of his ministers hide a lot of information about the identities of some military prisoners, in order to avoid stirring anger among the fighting forces.”
He stressed that “the only way to release the Israeli prisoners is through serious negotiations followed by a complete commitment to a ceasefire and (Gaza) reconstruction.”
While the exact number of remaining Israeli prisoners in Gaza is unknown after the release of 112 prisoners, Netanyahu’s office had announced the deaths of 33 out of 129 claimed to still be held in the enclave.
However, the numbers of the military personnel among them are not specified, and this is a strategy adopted by Israel to try to classify some soldiers or retired officers or reservists as civilians to reduce the cost of negotiating with them during the talks that were ongoing for the prisoner exchange, while the presence of prisoners with more than one party in Gaza also makes it difficult to locate them.
Shifting to another issue, the source said that Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Al-Sinwar is not isolated from what is going on in the Strip, despite the ongoing war and Israeli intelligence operations that continue around the clock. He added that “the talk about Sinwar being isolated in the tunnels is nothing but a claim made by Netanyahu to cover up his failure to achieve the declared objectives.” The source confirmed that Sinwar “is carrying out his leadership role in the field.”
The source mentioned that Sinwar recently inspected areas that witnessed clashes between the resistance and the occupation army and met with some fighters from the Movement above ground, not in tunnels.
Furthermore, he revealed that “discussions were made between the leadership of the Movement internally and externally, without specifying their nature, during which Sinwar briefed the external leadership on the situation of the resistance in the Strip, and he confirmed, with precise numbers and field reports, the strength of the resistance’s position, its steadfastness, and its ability to confront the occupation forces.”
On the other hand, the senior source affirmed that the Movement deals seriously with all proposals to reach a ceasefire agreement, and added that the US administration revealed during the negotiation rounds its blatant indulgence in the war on the enclave.
The source denied that Hamas was under pressure from the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, confirming that the positions of Cairo and Doha have shown an understanding of the resistance’s demands and conditions.
The spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, Matthew Miller, had claimed two days ago that Hamas changed its demands in the hostage negotiations, he added in a press conference that “the United States will continue to exert pressure to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Gaza and reach an agreement for the release of the hostages held by Hamas since the October 7 attack.”
In response, Hamas condemned the US statements that held the Movement responsible for obstructing the attainment of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, affirming that they are statements that contradict the truth and that the Movement has shown flexibility in facilitating the reaching of an agreement, but it was met with procrastination on the part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
