Al-Qassam Brigades holds PM Netanyahu, Israeli army responsible for killing of Gaza hostages

The armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Monday blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and army for the death of Israeli captives in Gaza by deliberately obstructing a cease-fire and hostage swap deal.

"Only Netanyahu and the occupation army bear full responsibility for the killing of the prisoners after they deliberately disrupted any deal to exchange prisoners for their personal and narrow interests, in addition to their deliberate killing of dozens of them through direct aerial bombardment," Abu Obeida, the Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, said in a statement.

He added that Netanyahu's insistence to release the Israeli captives "through military pressure instead of concluding a deal will mean that they will return to their families inside coffins and their families will have to choose whether they are dead or alive."

Abu Obeida said "new instructions" were given to the fighters assigned to guard the prisoners "regarding dealing with them if the occupation army approached their place of detention."

The Israeli army on Sunday said it found bodies of six hostages, claiming they were killed by Hamas. The Palestinian group, however, says they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack that claimed 1,200 lives and around 250 were taken as hostages. Around 101 hostages are believed to be remaining in the blockaded enclave.