GAZA: Hamas has released two more female captives both Israelis on humanitarian grounds despite the Netanyahu government’s refusal to accept them since last Friday.
A Hamas spokesman has confirmed the earlier al-Qassam Brigades statement, saying that two Israeli captives both women have been released.
“Netanyahu rejected the release. Now he has accepted, maybe under the pressure of the [Israeli] street,” Al Jazeera quoted Osama Hamdan.
“We got nothing in return for their release. We released them for humanitarian issues,” he added.
Hamdan said that the release took place even though Israel violated the terms of an agreement that would have guaranteed the safety of the captives.
“We asked to stop bombing Gaza at least for the time to release them, sending them to the Red Cross and then turning them to the authorities. The Israelis did not follow that. It shows you cannot trust the Israeli side,” he said. A Reuters report said that Hamas released two female civilian captives in response to Egyptian-Qatari mediation efforts.
It quoted Abu Ubaida from Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades that it had secured the release of the detainees “despite the enemy’s refusal to accept them since last Friday and their neglect of the issue of our prisoners”. Related: Israel steps up Gaza strikes ahead of ground invasion
“We decided to release them for humanitarian and poor health grounds … Despite that, the enemy refused to receive them last Friday,” the Telegram statement added. Egyptian state-affiliated media reported that the two hostages freed by Hamas arrived late Monday at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
