GAZA: Hamas' armed wing published on Saturday "farewell" photographs of most of the remaining captives in Gaza, warning that Israel's assault on Gaza City could endanger them. With the images, it evoked the case of an Israeli pilot missing since 1986 after being shot down over Lebanon.
Of the 251 people seized by Palestinian group during their attack on Israel in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead. "Due to Netanyahu's obstinacy and Zamir's submission.... a farewell photograph taken at the start of the operation in Gaza City, they wrote alongside the photos.
Israel launched a ground assault on Gaza City on Tuesday, following weeks of heavy air strikes that continue in the territory's largest urban centre. Hundreds of thousands of residents have fled, while families of hostages have urged the government to halt the offensive, warning it risks the lives of their loved ones still in captivity in Gaza.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades released 46 photographs of hostages on its Telegram channel, each one labelled with the name of Ron Arad, an Israeli air force navigator whose plane went down over southern Lebanon in 1986 during the Lebanese civil war. Arad was believed to have been initially held by Shiite groups in Lebanon and is now presumed dead, with his remains never returned. He has been a cause celebre for decades in Israel, where bringing home lost or captured soldiers is considered a national duty.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the world should not be "intimidated" by Israel as it presses its devastating Gaza war and pursues a "creeping" West Bank occupation. Israel has reportedly threatened to annex the West Bank if Western nations press ahead with recognising a Palestinian state at next week's UN high-level gathering in New York.
"We should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation, because with or without doing what we are doing, these actions would go on and at least there is a chance to mobilise international community to put pressure on them not to happen," he said. "I don't think we are talking about retaliation in relation to this or that. There has been a constant progress of the measures of the Israeli government in order to now completely destroy Gaza and have a creeping annexation in the West Bank."
Guterres has led calls for Israel to hold back from its fierce campaign in Gaza and to back off from the "unprecedented" assault it has threatened on Gaza City. "It is the worst level of death and destruction that I've seen my time as secretary general, probably my life and the suffering of the Palestinian people cannot be described — famine, total lack of effective health care, people living without adequate shelters in huge concentration areas."
The UN chief has nonetheless held off characterising Israel's conduct in Gaza as a "genocide," even as UN organs have used the phrasing which Israel bitterly contests. "The problem is that it's not in my functions to do the legal determination of genocide," he said. "It's not in my power. But let's be clear, the problem is not the word. The problem is the reality on the ground."
In Gaza this week, Israel's military launched its ground assault on Tuesday and has for days been telling residents to head south, but many Palestinians say the journey is prohibitively expensive and they do not know where to go. — AFP
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