Abbas Urges Hamas To Free Gaza Hostages

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday urged Hamas to free all hostages, saying keeping them provided Israel with "excuses" to attack Gaza, as rescuers recovered charred bodies from an Israeli strike. Israeli attacks killed at least 25 people across the besieged territory, while Germany, France and Britain urged Israel to end its aid blockade.

Israel's Gaza military campaign resumed on March 18, ending the ceasefire that had largely paused hostilities and saw the release of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. Talks on a new ceasefire have so far failed been fruitless, and a Hamas delegation is in Cairo for renewed negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari mediators. "Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages," Abbas said in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"I'm the one paying the price, our people are paying the price, not Israel. My brother, just hand them over." "Every day there are deaths," Abbas said. "You sons of dogs, hand over what you have and get us out of this" ordeal, he added, levelling a harsh Arabic epithet at Hamas. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim called his remarks "insulting". "Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our people," he



said.

Since the war began following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, tens of thousands of displaced Gazans have sought refuge in schools. Aid agencies estimate that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once. "We lack the necessary tools and equipment to carry out effective rescue operations or recover the bodies of martyrs," Bassal said. On Tuesday, Israel's military said it had targeted approximately 40 "engineering vehicles", alleging they were used for "terror purposes". 

Elsewhere in Gaza, further fatalities were reported Wednesday, including four in Israeli shelling of homes in eastern Gaza City, Bassal said. Since Israel's campaign resumed, at least 1,928 people have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,305, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Hamas's attack on Israel that ignited the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Germany, France, and Britain on Wednesday called on Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning of "an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death". "We urge Israel to immediately restart a rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to meet the needs of all civilians," their foreign ministers said in a joint statement.