A senior member of the Hamas terrorist movement stated that it is "not so important" how many hostages are still alive, in an interview with CBS news on Thursday.
When asked by CBS how many hostages are still alive, Ghazi Hamad, stated "I don't know. The number is not so important."
The interview came a day before the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, as the terrorist group refused to release the hostages it had committed to release and instead began launching rockets toward southern Israel early Friday morning.
Hamad says Hamas kidnapped baby, brother to 'pressure Israel'
Hamad additionally told CBS that Hamas had kidnapped 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel in order to force them to "impose pressure on their government, to tell them that you pushed us to hell."
When asked how a 10-month-old baby and four-year-old boy could take action to pressure the Israeli government, Hamad simply repeated that "they have to exert pressure on Israel, their government, in order to tell them that you are going in the wrong way."
The Hamas leader said that the Bibas family "paid the price because of the occupation."
Hamas has claimed in recent days that Kfir, Ariel, and their mother Shiri were killed after being kidnapped on October 7. The terrorist movement published a video of Shiri's husband on Thursday as part of its psychological warfare efforts. The IDF has stressed that it has not as of yet been able to confirm Hamas's claims.