'No one has any idea': Top Hamas official on number of Israeli hostages still alive
FirstpostAs Israel and Hamas traded claims they were committed to a ceasefire plan for Gaza, and accused each other of sabotaging it, a top senior Hamas official has said that “no one has an idea” how many of the 120 remaining hostages kidnapped on 7 October are still alive Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan speaks during a rally organized by Lebanon's Hezbollah terror group to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, in the southern suburb of Beirut, on 17 May, 2021. AP File As Israel and Hamas traded claims they were committed to a ceasefire plan for Gaza, and accused each other of sabotaging it, a top senior Hamas official has said that “no one has an idea” how many of the 120 remaining Israeli hostages kidnapped on 7 October are still alive. “Hamas needed a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves, the reconstruction, the of the siege … and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners exchange,” CNN quoted Hamdan as saying. He also rejected a recent Wall Street Journal report that claimed Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar welcomed Gazan civilian deaths as a “necessary sacrifice.” “It was fake messages done by someone who is not Palestinian and was sent Wall Street Journal as part of the pressure against Hamas and provoking the people against the leader,” CNN quoted him as saying.