Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Three Russians, who also have Israeli citizenship, are still being held hostage by the Palestinian Hamas movement, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Simone Halperin told reporters on April 3.
| Russia does not seem very exercised by this situation, given that they’ve chosen to openly side with Hamas against the Joooooos…. |
“Three people with dual citizenship, including Russian,” Izvestia quoted her as saying.
Halperin reported that Hamas held 134 people hostage, of whom the Israeli authorities declared 36 dead. There are no Russians on the list of dead, she clarified.
The New York Times reported in March that Hamas had rejected a deal proposed by Washington to exchange hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. According to the publication, they planned to release hundreds of Palestinians in exchange for 40 hostages.
Hamas took hostages in an unprecedented attack on Israeli border areas beginning on October 7, 2023. In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began military operations in the Gaza Strip. Since then, there have been hostage exchanges, including the release of two Russian women by the Palestinians in November.
In January 2024, the Hamas leadership announced that the deputy head of the organization's Politburo, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in an explosion at the movement's office in Libya. In this regard, the movement announced that it was refusing any negotiations with Israel, including on a truce or exchange of hostages.
|
