Hamas announced negotiations with Russia about prisoners

The Palestinian radical organization Hamas, which attacked Israel on the morning of October 7, and Moscow established contacts for negotiations on captured Israelis with second Russian citizenship. Member of the Hamas Politburo Musa Abu Marzuk reported this on the Al Jazeera TV channel.

“There are (among those detained in the Gaza Strip – ed.) dozens of people with dual citizenship <...> We have contacts with Russia, since there are those who have Russian citizenship,” he said (cit. according to RIA Novosti).

On the morning of October 7, the Palestinian group Hamas began military operations against Israel. The militants attacked the army’s border units and freely entered Israeli populated areas, where they captured an unknown number of hostages, both military and civilian. The Israeli Army (IDF) responded by launching Operation Iron Swords, and the Israeli government announced that the country had entered a state of war. According to the latest data, the victims of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict become more than 1,600 people, including 900 people from Israel and more than 700 from Palestine.

October 9 at the Russian Embassy in Israel reported about the death of one Russian as a result of an attack by the Palestinian movement. In addition, four Russians are listed as missing. Later a Hamas representative confirmedthat the organization has captive Israelis with dual citizenship, including Russian, at its disposal.

There are conflicting statements coming from Hamas itself regarding the future fate of the hostages. Thus, the head of the group’s external relations department, Basem Naim, stated that the militants would treat the hostages humanely and that they would all be safe. However, on October 9, the spokesman for the movement’s military wing, Abu Ubaida, threatened that militants would kill hostages if Israel continued to attack the Gaza Strip.