Hamas leader lays out conditions for hostage releases as Israel poised to attack
A senior Hamas leader has vowed to release more than 200 Israeli hostages being held by the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.
Khaled Meshaal, the former leader of the organization, said that if Israel reduced its air assault on Gaza, Hamas would free hostages.
He said: “Let them stop this aggression and you will find the mediators like Qatar and Egypt and some Arab countries and others will find a way to have them released and we’ll send them to their homes.”
He warned that while Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza remained so intense, Hamas would not free the hostages.
Meshaal added: “We want to stop the random bombardments, the total destruction, the genocide so that the al Qassam soldiers can take them from their places and hand them to the Red Cross or whoever.”
He repeated previous claims that 22 hostages had been killed by Israeli airstrikes. Hamas has not said the nationality of these hostages but claimed that many were Israeli.
So far, just two hostages – an American mother and daughter – have been released by the terrorist group.
Despite abundant and chilling footage showing Hamas members executing Israeli civilians, Meshaal claimed Hamas never intended to kill civilians during the October 7 attack.
He told Sky News: “If there was any killing, this was definitely not intended. Definitely.”
Khaled Meshaal survived an assassination attempt by Israel in 1997 and is a hugely influential member of Hamas’s political leadership.
He lives in exile in Qatar where he and other Hamas leadership direct the organization. He was the head of the terror group from 2004 until 2017.
In 2006 Hamas shocked the world by winning a majority of the seats in the Palestinian legislative election under his leadership.
The October 7 terrorist attack was the deadliest in Israel’s history with at least 1,400 people killed. Hamas took more than 200 hostages back to Gaza.
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