"No one has an idea" of how many of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza are still alive, Hamas official Osama Hamdan, currently based in Lebanon, admitted in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
Hamdam spoke with CNN journalist Ben Wedeman in Beirut, where he said that Hamas "needed a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves," CNN quoted him as saying, "the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege … and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners exchange.”
He went on to say in the interview that a key issue for the ceasefire deal was its duration, claiming that Israel does not intend to follow through all the steps in the deal.
Deflecting any responsibility by Hamas
The CNN report then describes Hamdan "repeatedly deflecting any questions about Hamas’ role in the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza." He said that the October 7 massacre leading to the war in Gaza was a “reaction against the occupation.”
The Hamas official also dismissed reports CNN cited where the terrorist organization's leader, Yahya Sinwar, said that the tens of thousands of deaths "were necessary sacrifices." CNN also noted that Hamdan failed to provide any evidence when he said that the IDF's recent rescue operation of four hostages also resulted in the deaths of three other hostages.
When Hamdan was asked about the abuse the hostages faced while in captivity, he directed the blame again to Israel.
"This is because of what Israel have done in Gaza. Because (no one can) handle what Israel is doing, bombing each day, killing civilians, killing women and children … they saw that (with) their own eyes,” he was quoted as saying. He also falsely claimed that released hostages, after looking at photos of before and after their release, that “they were better than before.”