Hamas planned to neutralize hostages if Israel launched rescue mission

Hamas planned to “neutralize” the remaining Israeli hostages if Israel launched a rescue mission to free them — and the terrorist group believed such a move was imminent.In a Nov.22 internal statement reviewed Wednesday by Reuters, Hamas said it believed Israel was about to stage an operation like the June attack at Gaza’s Nuseirat camp that freed four hostages grabbed during Hamas’ sneak attack Oct.

7.But if any such assault happened, Hamas advised its operatives to “activate neutralization orders … as an immediate and swift response to any adventure by the enemy.”The memo also told militants not to consider the repercussions of following the instructions, since it held Israel squarely responsible for the fate of its hostages.Hamas captors likely did something similar in February, when they shot dead six hostages after an Israeli airstrike hit a few hundred yards from the underground tunnel in Khan Younis where they were hidden, according to the New York Times.The captives’ corpses were found in Gaza over the summer, the outlet said.The November statement also told operatives to “tighten” hostages’ living conditions as per guidance issued after the bloody Nuseirat raid, which Palestinian officials say killed more than 200 people.The group’s leadership circulated the statement to different factions through its intelligence branch — but didn’t say when it expected the Israeli strike to come.Although Israel didn’t respond to the threat, Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that pressure on Hamas was ratcheting up and his country would “really be able to advance a hostage deal.”The Gaza campaign — now in its second year — is retribution for the Oct.7 attacks in which Hamas fighters vaulted the armed border and struck Israeli communities, killing 1,200 and seizing 250 hostages.Since then, Israel’s military has reduced to rubble much of the enclave, killed more than 44,500 Palestinians and injured many others, according ...