Hamas said on Monday it was “not afraid” of a ground attack by Israel, which has massed troops along the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement, which Israel’s political and military leadership wants to eliminate. completely.

“The threat (by the forces) of the (Israeli) occupation to launch a ground attack against our people does not scare us and we are ready,” the spokesman for Hamas’ military arm, Abu Ubaydah, said in a recorded message. of.

Hamas and Israel have been at war since the movement’s fighters launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israeli territory since then, according to the latest figures released by Israeli authorities, who also estimated yesterday morning that the hostages in the hands of Hamas are 199.

Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for Chahal, the Israeli army, stressed that “the efforts regarding the hostages are a national priority” as their families had no news.

Abu Obeida, for his part, said yesterday that the number of hostages in the Gaza Strip is “200 to 250”, specifying that 200 are in the hands of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, and the rest in the hands of others “resistance groups”.

“We will release the foreign prisoners if conditions permit,” he added, without elaborating further.

He also reiterated that 22 hostages were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip during the ten days of the war.

More than 2,750 people have been killed in the small Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people in Israeli retaliatory bombings, according to local authorities.