“No Israeli hostage will leave alive..”says Hamas, Israel bombs Southern Gaza in retaliation

Israel bombed Southern Gaza on Monday morning, reducing the main city to rubble and dust following Hamas’s warning that no Israeli hostage will be released alive unless its demands for Palestinian prisoners are met.

On Sunday evening, Hamas had issued a stern warning that Israel would not receive "their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance". Hamas’ warning was met with a spate of retaliatory strikes on Khab Yunis on Monday. As per reports, Israel has stated that a total of 137 hostages continue to be in captivity in Gaza. Whereas, several activists and humanitarian aid organizations have maintained that over 7,000 Palestinians have been held up in Israeli jails.

In what has been termed as the “deadliest attack” on Israel, Hamas had launched an air-offensive on October 7 that killed over 1,200 people and taking in 240 people as hostages. Israel was quick to retaliate with brute force and Gaza ever since has been grappling with the wartime vagaries. According to the Hamas run Health Ministry, over 17,000 people that include women and children have been killed and nearly 2 million people have been displaced so far.

A temporary ceasefire mediated by Qatar was signed by Isreal and the Hamas in exchange for the release of hostages. However, the attacks resumed after an interim pause in adherence to Israel’s resolve to eradicate Hamas. Several international organizations have been rallying for a pro-longed truce as they state that a major “human tragedy” has unfolded in Gaza.

The United Nations has estimated that nearly 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, nearly half of them women and children have been displaced from their houses in Gaza. "Gaza's health system is on its knees and collapsing," said WHO Chief Tedos Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Healthcare facilities in Gaza are overwhelmed as only 14 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functional, as per the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.