Hamas seeks Palestinian prisoners’ release, calls non-Israeli captives ‘guests’

The terrorist group may attempt to use the Israelis it abducted as negotiating chips to obtain the release of Palestinian inmates, according to a prominent Hamas commander who said on Monday that the organization “has what it needs” to liberate all Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

Hamas took the non-Israelis hostage on October 7 and included Israelis and people from other countries. Shortly after Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal commented, the group’s armed wing declared the non-Israelis were “guests” who would be freed “when circumstances allow.”

After rampaging through southern Israeli villages and military posts and murdering over 1,300 people, Hamas gunmen grabbed many captives. Israel’s military claims that the hostage-takers are holding 199 people in Gaza. According to Hamas, it has 200–250.

According to Meshaal, a former Hamas leader who now runs the organization’s diaspora office in Doha, Hamas “has what it needs to empty the prisons of all prisoners,” as other groups have long demanded the release of the approximately 6,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier detained for five years, was freed in 2011 when Israel exchanged hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Such an exchange—which some Israelis at the time criticized as being excessively lopsided—seems like an impossibly difficult deal with so many people detained.

Israel, which has declared it will take action to release the prisoners while destroying Hamas, has devastated Gaza with attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

It is thought that the prisoners include citizens of Germany and Thailand. Other nations have reported the disappearance of their nationals. It is also thought that Israelis with dual citizenship have been abducted in nations like the United States.

A Franco-Israeli lady taken hostage in last week’s incident made a statement in a video Hamas posted late on Monday. Her family was one of several people who pleaded with the president of France to release their lost loved ones.

In a video message, Abu Obeida, the Hamas’ armed wing spokesperson, said that the organization has “a group of detainees of different nationalities; these are our guests, and we seek to protect them.”

He continued: “We will release detainees of different nationalities when circumstances on the ground allow.” He said nothing further.

According to Moussa Abu Marzouk, a prominent member of the Hamas leadership, “foreign prisoners cannot be released due to the ongoing Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.”