Hamas Claims it Hasn’t Located All Civilians Taken From Israel To Gaza

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Hamas terrorist group claimed in an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant that it cannot release hostages until a ceasefire is agreed.

The newspaper quoted a member of the Hamas delegation in Moscow named Abu Hamid as saying that Hamas needed time to locate all of those who had been taken from Israel to Gaza by various Palestinian factions in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7. It is known that not all of the captives were taken by Hamas, and some were taken by civilians and by other splinter terrorist groups.

“They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them,” Hamid said.

Kommersant quoted him as saying a calm environment was needed to complete this task.

Of the 224 known hostages, 138  possess foreign passports. This includes 54 Thais, 15 Argentinians, 12 Americans, 12 Germans, six French and six Russians.

Israel has urged Russia to expel the visiting Hamas delegation, calling their invitation to Moscow “deplorable”.

“Israel sees the invitation of senior Hamas officials to Moscow as an obscene step that gives support to terrorism and legitimizes the atrocities of Hamas terrorists,” the Foreign Ministry said, and called on Moscow to immediately expel the Hamas leaders.

“The hands of senior Hamas officials are stained with the blood of over 1,400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned, and they are responsible for the kidnapping of over 220 Israelis including babies, children, women and the elderly,” it added.

Russia  has repeatedly blamed the current crisis on a failure of U.S. diplomacy, and called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of talks aimed at finding a peace agreement.