By Mohammed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Hamas said Sunday that three Israeli hostages, including a US citizen, were killed in an Israeli operation during which four captives were freed in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army freed four hostages on Saturday during a military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, posted a video on its Telegram channel showing three unidentified corpses with signs of blood on their bodies and their faces covered.
“Your government killed a number of your hostages to save other captives,” it said in the video.
At least 274 Palestinians were killed and nearly 700 others injured in a deadly Israeli attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala