The Hamas militant group on Friday said that at least 13 hostages captured by them have been killed due to Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip. There has not been any immediate response from Israel.

In a statement, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that the 13 hostages were killed in five locations targeted by Israel over the last 24 hours. 

Earlier, Israel said that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are also holding more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage. Hamas has threatened to kill captured Israelis if airstrikes continued on Gaza civilians without warning.

“We have decided to put an end to this and as of now and we declare that any targeting of our people in their homes without prior warning will be regrettably faced with the execution of one the hostages of civilians we are holding,” said the spokesperson of the Hamas military wing said in an audio statement on Monday.

Israel strikes on Gaza

Since the Hamas attack on Israel, the latter has launched relentless air and artillery strikes on the Gaza Strip, a densely packed region of 2.4 million people, causing the deaths of over 1,500 people including children. 

Palestinians said that heavy Israeli airstrikes continued across the Gaza Strip, with bombardment on residential buildings in densely populated city districts and refugee camps. Additionally, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Thursday put two Syrian international airports out of service.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) dropped at least 6,000 bombs weighing 4,000 tonnes to eliminate hundreds of Hamas militants as of Thursday. The operation, which began in the early hours of the sixth day of the war, also saw the involvement of dozens of fighter jets, helicopter gunships and aircraft.

“Over 3,600 targets were attacked and hundreds of terrorists were killed in the attacks. Among the attacked targets were the command and control targets, strategic military infrastructures, munitions production sites, intelligence assets, leadership targets, naval superiority targets and rocket array targets,” said the IDF.

The Israeli Air Force on Friday said that it struck 750 military targets in Gaza overnight, including underground Hamas terror tunnels, military compounds and posts, residences of senior terrorist operatives used as military command centers, weapons storage warehouses, comms rooms and targeted senior terrorist operatives.

“Dozens of fighter jets struck numerous Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip, including 12 Hamas military assets, each located in a multi-story building used by the Hamas for terror purposes,” it said on X.

What is happening now?

Now, the Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of at least 1.1 million people in northern Gaza ahead of a possible ground assault on the territory in retaliation to an unprecedented attack on the Jewish country that has killed hundreds of people, according to the United Nations.

The UN warned that so many people fleeing en masse would be catastrophic, and Hamas, which staged the unprecedented and brutal attack on Israel, dismissed it as a “disgusting psychological war” and called on people to stay in their homes, adding to the widespread panic.

The week-old war has already claimed over 2,800 lives on both sides and sent tensions soaring across the region. The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza rose to 1,537, with 6,612 people wounded, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Thursday. Of those killed, 500 were under the age of 18, the ministry said. On the other hand, over 1,300 people have died in Israel from the Hamas attack since Saturday morning.

(with inputs from agencies)

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