Hamas says Netanyahu is responsible for fate of Israeli hostages

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for the fate of the hostages following the start of the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza City.

"War criminal Netanyahu" bears full responsibility for the lives of "his prisoners in the Gaza Strip," the group said in a post on Telegram. Hamas refers to the hostages abducted from Israel, many of whom are civilians, as "prisoners."

In addition, the post said the US government bears "direct responsibility for the escalation of the brutal war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip." The US, it claimed, supports a "policy of deception aimed at covering up the war crimes of the occupying power, which the world has been witnessing for almost two years."

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas' unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others were abducted to the coastal territory.

Around 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict, according to Palestinian sources.

The figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters and cannot be independently verified, but the UN considers them credible.

Large parts of the densely populated coastal strip have been destroyed in the fighting.

Israel repeatedly says the fighting could end immediately if Hamas released the 48 remaining hostages and laid down its arms.