Israeli genocidal war on Gaza killed over 40 captives: Report

A recent report has revealed that more than forty Israeli captives held by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been killed by the regime’s airstrikes since October 7, 2023.

According to an analysis by The New York Times (NYT) published on Saturday, of the 251 Israeli soldiers and settlers taken captive by Hamas in Gaza, 41 have been killed by “Israeli bombing and friendly fire.”

Citing the Israeli regime’s cabinet, the US daily added that of the 59 Israeli captives still held by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza, only 24 remain alive and 130 others have been released alive.

“A few [captives] were almost certainly killed in the first days of the war, before it was possible to seal a truce. But many others have died since the brief first cease-fire collapsed in November 2023 and the fighting continued in a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians,” the report said.

“The corpses of 40 others have been returned to Israel in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees following ceasefire agreements in November 2023 and January of this year.”

The NYT underlined that its analysis was based on forensic reports and military investigations into the captives’ deaths, as well as interviews with more than a dozen Israeli soldiers and officials, a senior official and seven relatives of captives.

The paper attributed the deaths to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s preference to continue his genocidal war on Gaza, rather than reach a deal for a permanent end to the war.

“We could have brought home more [captives] — earlier and for a smaller price,” Yoav Gallant, former Israeli minister of military affairs, said in a televised interview last month.

“Only continued military pressure, until total victory, will bring about the release of all of our [captives],” Netanyahu claimed last year.

Israeli media also reported multiple times since the start of the war that Netanyahu was committed to sabotaging a deal that would end the war and bring the Israeli captives home.

Hamas hands over bodies of 4 Israeli captives killed in regime strikes to Red Cross

Hamas hands over the bodies of four Israeli captives killed in the regime

In one prominent case, the mother of Ron Sherman, an Israeli captive taken by Hamas, said that the Israeli military “deliberately” killed her son.

The occupation army retrieved Ron’s body and the bodies of two other captives from a tunnel in Gaza but claimed that Hamas had murdered all three.

In a post on Facebook, Maayan Sherman said that her son “was indeed murdered … [But] not by Hamas ... not an accidental shooting, not in the crossfire. It was premeditated murder. Bombs with poisonous gases ... They found that Ron also had several crushed fingers, apparently due to his desperate attempts to get out of the poison grave.”

One indication that Ron was killed by poison gas is that when his body was found, “There [were] no fractures, no gunshot wounds, not even dry blows,” Maayan said.

However, she was told that “the issue is closed” and that the army would not investigate the matter further.

Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed at least 48,446 Palestinians there so far.

In January, the Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas, given the regime’s failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the “elimination” of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.

During the first phase of the deal, Hamas exchanged 33 Israeli captives and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian abductees held illegally in Israeli jails.

The 42-day stage of the truce, which was marred by repeated Israeli violations, expired on March 1, with Israel refraining from engaging in talks for the second phase of the agreement. 

Hamas has insisted on proceeding to negotiations on a permanent ceasefire before agreeing to any further releases of Israeli captives.

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