Today, Saturday, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, bearing pictures of Israelis detained in the Strip, and called on Palestinians to inform the Israeli army if they recognized any of them.
The leaflets carried pictures and names of 69 Israelis detained by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, most notably the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and the writing on these leaflets was: “Do you want to return home? Please report if you identify one of them.” The Israeli occupation army attached a phone number and website to send information.
Among the most prominent Israelis whose photos appeared in the publications: Afere Mengistu, Hisham Shaaban al-Sayyid, Hadar Goldin, and Oron Shaul, who were captured by the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas movement – during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2014.
Posts in Rafah, pictures of hostages with a message saying, “You want to go home.” Please report if you spot one of them pic.twitter.com/TjBZSnZ1pU
– 𓂆 Hamza (@Hamzaalnamla1) January 20, 2024
On January 13, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced via a video clip that it had lost contact with a cell responsible for four Israeli detainees it had held in Gaza since 2014.
The Al-Qassam Brigades previously announced the killing of many of its Israeli detainees in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
This is the first time that the occupation army has dropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip bearing pictures and names of Israelis detained in Gaza.
Leaflets on areas in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip
Leaves on areas in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip pic.twitter.com/B5vynmXoC3
– PALESTINE FOREVER (@AbdelkrimFaris2) January 20, 2024
On October 7, the Hamas movement launched an attack on Israeli military points and settlements around the Gaza Strip, during which it killed about 1,200 Israelis, wounded about 5,431, and captured at least 239. It exchanged dozens of them with Israel during a temporary humanitarian truce that lasted 7 days and ended in early December. /Last December.
The temporary truce resulted in the release of 105 civilians detained by Hamas, including 81 Israelis, 23 Thais, and one Filipino. In return, under the truce, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners, 71 female prisoners, and 169 children from its prisons.
Israel says that about 136 detainees remain in the Gaza Strip, according to identical media reports and statements by Israeli officials.
Yesterday, Friday, the families of Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip began a sit-in in front of the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the city of Caesarea, south of Haifa, to demand that he conclude an exchange deal with the Palestinian resistance factions, as Israeli officials acknowledge that exchange is the only way to return detainees in the Strip.