Hamas defends October atrocity
GAZA STRIP: Palestinian militant group Hamas has defended its October 7 attacks against Israel but admitted to “faults” and called for an end to “Israeli aggression” in Gaza, where the health ministry said the death toll had passed 25,000.
In its first public report on the attacks that began the war, Hamas said they were a “necessary step” against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and a way to secure release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later vowed “complete victory” and said his government would not accept Hamas’s conditions for releasing hostages still held in Gaza.
Hamas’s 16-page report admitted “some faults happened … due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas”.
Militants seized about 250 hostages during the attacks, and Israel says around 132 remain in Gaza.
The Israeli army on Sunday announced the death of another soldier kept hostage and said his body remains in Gaza. He is the 28th hostage killed in the strip since the war began.
In a video statement released after the Hamas report, Mr Netanyahu said that “in exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands an end to the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza”, the release of Palestinian prisoners and guarantees that Hamas would stay in power.
“If we accept this, our soldiers have fallen in vain” and security would not be guaranteed, he said.
As fears of the conflict spreading through the region grows, the US said two Navy SEALs who went missing during an operation to search for and seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been declared dead after a 10-day search failed to locate them.
The Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have been attacking Western ships in the Red Sea in support of Hamas in its fight against Israel.
And the death toll in an airstrike on the Syrian capital Damascus that Iran blames on Israel has risen to 13, including five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.