The military wing of the Hamas resistance movement has warned that more Israelis will be killed if the regime keeps using military means to release them from captivity in the Gaza Strip.
“Military pressure equals death and failure. An exchange deal equals freedom and life,” read the caption of a poster published on Monday by the al-Qassam Brigades.
The poster depicted a resistance fighter holding a handgun bearing the logo of the al-Qassam Brigades’ Shadow Unit, and an Israeli soldier in the background sitting in a tunnel with his head bowed down.
Reiterating the warning, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, said Israeli captives would return to the occupied territories “in coffins” if Israel insists on military pressure instead of a prisoner exchange deal to free those held in Gaza.
“[Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s insistence on freeing the captives through military pressure instead of reaching a deal means they will go back to their families in coffins. Their families have to choose between receiving them dead or alive,” he said.
Netanyahu and the Israeli military “intentionally hindered” a prisoner swap and thus they are “fully responsible” for the death of Israeli captives, he added.
The remarks came two days after the occupation’s military found the bodies of six captives in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Hamas said they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Abu Obeida said since June, the al-Qassam Brigades has been operating under new instructions on how to handle Israeli captives should the regime forces approach their locations in Gaza.
The death of the six captives ignited fury among Israelis who have for months denounced Netanyahu’s policy of torpedoing a deal with Hamas in favor of his political interests.
