JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Israel will increase “military pressure” on Palestinian resistance group Hamas to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza, warning of “additional and painful blows” in the coming days, AFP reported.
In a video statement released on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Netanyahu said Israel will intensify its efforts against Hamas, without specifying the nature of the actions to be taken. “In the coming days we will increase the military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages,” Netanyahu said. He threatened to “deliver more painful blows” without specifying.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defense reported the recovery of at least 50 bodies buried by Israeli forces at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. The civil defense agency alleged that some of the victims had been tortured, describing the situation as a “mass grave” of those “executed in cold blood.”
“Inside the Nasser Medical complex there are mass graves dug by the Israeli occupation … we were shocked by the presence of bodies of 50 martyrs in one of the pits yesterday,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, told AFP.
“We are continuing the search operation today and are waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number of martyrs.” He alleged some of those killed had been tortured.
“There were no clothes on some bodies, which certainly indicates (the victims) faced torture and abuse,” Bassal said. Intense fighting raged in mid-February in the area of the hospital, and Israeli tanks and armored vehicles surrounded it on March 26.
Meanwhile, Hamas condemned the mass grave and reiterated its commitment to resist Israeli aggression. The group accused Israel of targeting hospitals and committing atrocities against Palestinian civilians.
Hospitals in Gaza have not been spared in the Israeli assault. The World Health Organization said on April 6 that the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City, had been reduced to ashes by an Israeli siege last month, leaving an “empty shell” containing many bodies.
WHO staff who gained access to the devastated facility described horrifying scenes of bodies only partly buried, their limbs sticking out, and the stench of decomposition. Israel is engaged in a sweeping military assault in Gaza since October 7.
Since October 7, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment campaign killing at least 34,097 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. Israeli airstrikes have continued to target civilian areas, including the southern city of Rafah, where a strike killed a family of three, including a pregnant mother, while injuring others.
Rafah is the last Gaza area that Israeli ground forces have not entered in a more than six-month offensive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced wide international opposition to the plan to attack Rafah.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces conducted a raid in the occupied West Bank, resulting in the deaths of 14 Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities. Additionally, an ambulance driver was killed in a separate attack by violent Jewish settlers.
