Israel and Hamas at war, day 100 | Many hostages ‘were probably killed recently,’ says Hamas

The war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas passed the 100-day mark on Sunday, with more civilians killed in Gaza and relatives of Israeli hostages still in anguish over their fate.

The Israeli army again bombarded the Gaza Strip on Sunday, whose population is experiencing a major humanitarian crisis, while the continuation of the conflict exacerbates regional tensions.

Israelis expressed solidarity on Sunday with the hostages held in the Palestinian territory by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and its allies to mark 100 days of their detention and support the mobilization of their families.

But the spokesperson for the military branch of Hamas affirmed in the evening that “many” of the hostages were “probably killed recently”, the others being “in great danger”.

“The fate of many hostages has been unknown for recent weeks, and the others have all entered the tunnel of the unknown,” said Abou Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ military wing in a televised address.

“Many of them have probably been killed recently and the rest are in great danger,” for which “the leadership of the enemy and its army bears full responsibility,” he continued.

The release of those detained is one of the objectives of the war triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip, leaving around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count at from the Israeli record.

Some 250 people were taken hostage during this attack, and 132 are still in Gaza, of whom at least 25 were killed, according to Israeli authorities. About a hundred were released under a truce at the end of November.

In retaliation for the attack, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, classified as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Its operations in the Gaza Strip have left at least 23,968 dead, mainly women, adolescents and children, according to the latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health.

“We don’t abandon anyone”

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis observed a 100-minute strike in the morning to mark 100 days of detention of the hostages, announced the major trade union center Histadrut.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people took part in a series of events, including a concert by Artifex, the last DJ to play at the Tribe of Nova festival – 364 of whose attendees were killed by Hamas on October 7 according to Israeli figures.

Bashir al-Zayadna, 27, whose uncle and cousin, Youssef and Hamza al-Zayadna, 53 and 22, are hostages, says he only hopes for one thing: to be able to hug his loved ones and “tell them that it’s all over.”

“We are not abandoning anyone. We are doing everything to bring them all home. I insist: all, without exception,” assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu on the sidelines of a meeting of his cabinet.

The “hardest” war

According to Hamas, more than 100 people were killed in nightly Israeli bombardments across the Gaza Strip, particularly in Khan Younes (south).

The Israeli army has said in recent days that it is concentrating its operations on this town, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled the fighting further north are massed.

She reported the death of a soldier on Sunday, bringing to 188 the number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations in Gaza on October 27.

The Israeli blockade, reinforced with the war, causes serious shortages of food and fuel, and the rain and cold complicate the daily survival of the 2.4 million inhabitants.

The UN estimates that 1.9 million people have had to leave their homes.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Liga Jabr, a teenager in 1948, says she remembers the “Nakba”, the “catastrophe” that was for the Palestinians the displacement and expulsion of around 760,000 people. between them from their lands to the creation of the State of Israel.

But “this war is harder than all the displacements” of population she has experienced, she told AFP.

Regional tensions

Outside Gaza, the conflict is fueling regional violence with armed groups supporting Hamas.

An Israeli woman and her son were killed by a missile strike from Lebanon on Sunday at their home in the border village of Kfar Youval in northern Israel, according to the army and local authorities.

The pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah, for its part, said it had carried out six attacks on Israeli soil.

The Israeli army had earlier indicated that it had killed “three terrorists” who had infiltrated Israel from southern Lebanon during the night.

Exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been daily since October 7.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that Israel had “failed” to achieve its objectives in Gaza, and had “won no real or semblance of victory”.

Tensions have also increased in the Red Sea where Yemeni Houthi rebels supported by Iran are increasing attacks against ships believed to be linked to Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinians. The United States and the United Kingdom carried out strikes against Houthi sites on Friday and Saturday in response.

Houthi media reported on Sunday evening new Anglo-American strikes on the port city of Hodeida (west), but Washington immediately denied this.

In the occupied West Bank, the scene of renewed violence since October 7, the Israeli army reported the arrest, for “incitement to terrorism”, of two sisters of Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri, killed on January 2 in Lebanon in a drone attack attributed to the Israeli army.

Israeli forces also said they “neutralized two terrorists” near Hebron while a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by the Israeli army in a separate incident in Jericho, according to Palestinian medical sources.