Amid Hamas delivered the bodies of four Israeli detainees on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened vengeance against the Gaza Strip. This came amid allegations that his extended refusal to negotiate the inmates’ release had contributed to their deaths.
Earlier in the day, in accordance with a truce and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel, Hamas turned over the remains of Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
During the 16-month enclave massacre, the Palestinian resistance group claimed that they were slain in Israeli indiscriminate airstrikes.
“The voice of our dear ones’ blood cries out to us from the ground,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office, in his first statement after the transfer. He is facing charges of crimes against humanity in Gaza. We shall settle accounts with the vile killers, as it compels us to do so.”Returning these four bodies compels us to ensure that what happened on October 7 never happens again,” he stated, implying that he intended to renew the attack on Gaza.According to Hamas, the bombing of prison places by Israeli troops was the cause of the prisoners’ deaths. In an effort to safeguard its prisoners, the gang stressed that it treated them decently.
In what the group dubbed Israel’s “criminal bombardment of Gaza,” the same strikes that killed the four inmates also killed 17,881 Palestinian children.
In a statement, Hamas accused Netanyahu of attempting to avoid responsibility for the deaths of his inmates and blamed him for exploiting the crisis for his own political survival.
Public outcry over the first-ever return of Israeli prisoners in coffins as part of the exchange deal has led Netanyahu to threaten Gaza.
According to news reports, the prime minister was so worried that the public would view his attendance at the funeral as a personal attack that he canceled his plans to go.
The Israeli opposition has held Netanyahu responsible for the killings, claiming that he delayed a prisoner exchange for months to protect his coalition from falling apart. This coalition includes ministers on the extreme right who want the conflict in Gaza to go on.Last month, a ceasefire was enforced in the Gaza Strip, putting an end to Israel’s genocidal war that had claimed the lives of over 48,300 people—mostly women and children—and devastated the enclave.
In November, Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, were both sent arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court on charges related to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
The Israeli invasion of the enclave has also brought a genocide complaint against Israel to the ICJ.
