Hamas warned the residents of the large Israeli city Ashkelon to leave by 5 pm.

Hamas has specifically threatened to attack the Israeli city of Ashkelon in response to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

In a Telegram post, Hamas said that residents of the town, just north of the Gaza Strip, have until 17:00 local time to leave.

In particular, in a statement on social media Hamas reports that “In response to the enemy’s crime of displacing our people from the Gaza Strip, We are giving the residents of the occupied city of Ashkelon a deadline to leave before 5 this afternoon.”

Over 4,500 rockets have already been fired from Gaza into Israel since Saturdayaccording to the Israeli military.

This timeaccording to information broadcast by the BBC, sirens are sounding in Tel Aviv.

Earlier, the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya, had stated that the question of the exchange of hostages will be raised only after the end of the war.

In a statement, the head of the Palestinian armed organization that controls the Gaza Strip emphasized that “parties that contacted us” and offered to mediate the release of hostages with a prisoner exchange were informed of this decision.

About 150 people, soldiers and civilians of different nationalities, were kidnapped by the Palestinian organization during the weekend attack on Israeli territory.

Last night the Palestinian Islamist movement has threatened to execute hostages it is holding in retaliation for Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Qatari mediators held emergency talks with Hamas officials yesterday in an attempt to negotiate freedom for women and children from Israel who were kidnapped by the Palestinian armed group and are being held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons, according to Reuters.