Netanyahu ignores his responsibility for killing prisoners and threatens Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened the Gaza Strip, vowing to avenge the deaths of four Israeli prisoners whose bodies were released by Hamas earlier on Thursday.

This comes as a result of his forgetting his responsibility for killing these prisoners, due to his obstruction for many months of reaching a deal to return them, while the Palestinian factions confirm that they preserved their lives, but it was their army that killed them along with their captors.

Earlier on Thursday, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released the bodies of four Israelis who it said were killed in the violent Israeli bombardment of Gaza during the 16-month aggression.

The four bodies belong to Sheri Bibas, her two children, Kfir and Ariel, and prisoner Oded Lifshitz, and were handed over as part of the seventh batch of the first phase of the current ceasefire agreement.

In his first comment on the release of the bodies of the four Israelis, Netanyahu, who is wanted for crimes against humanity in Gaza, said, "The voices of the blood of our loved ones are crying out to us from the ground, and this obliges us to hold the killers accountable, and we will hold them accountable."

In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu continued his threat to Gaza by quoting a phrase from the Book of Psalms in the Torah (the Jewish holy book) that says: “O God of vengeance, be revealed.”

"We all feel pain mixed with anger," he added.

He added, threateningly: "The return of the four bodies obliges us to ensure that what happened on October 7 (October 2023) will never happen again," hinting at his intention to resume the war on Gaza.

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian factions in Gaza, through an operation called “Al-Aqsa Flood,” attacked 11 military bases and 22 settlements adjacent to the Strip with the aim of what they said was “ending the unjust siege on Gaza (which lasted for 18 years) and thwarting Israel’s plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause and impose its sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

On the same day, Israel, with American support, began a genocidal war on Gaza, leaving more than 160,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing, in addition to massive destruction.

** Hamas: We treated the prisoners humanely, and their army killed them

Following the release of the bodies of the four Israelis today, Hamas confirmed that the Israeli army was responsible for their deaths by bombing their detention centers, and stressed that the resistance in Gaza "treated them humanely and tried to rescue them."

The movement indicated in a statement that the Israeli army killed, along with the four Israeli prisoners, 17,881 Palestinian children through its "criminal bombing of Gaza."

She added: "The criminal Netanyahu is crying today over the bodies of his prisoners who returned to him in coffins, in a blatant attempt to evade responsibility for their killing in front of his audience."

Netanyahu's threat to Gaza comes as criticism of him mounts in the Israeli street, which is gripped by anger after the prisoners began returning in coffins for the first time as part of the current exchange deal.

It seems that these criticisms, according to Hebrew media estimates, are what forced Netanyahu to back down from his intention to participate in the ceremony to receive the bodies of the four prisoners today, after he wanted to turn the scene into a political victory for him, but it actually turned into resentment and anger against him.

The Israeli opposition holds Netanyahu responsible for the deaths of a large number of prisoners due to his obstruction for many months of reaching a deal to return them, for fear of the collapse of his government coalition, in which far-right ministers were pressing for the continuation of the war of extermination on Gaza.

On January 19, the first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement began, divided into three phases, each lasting 42 days, with the condition that the next phase be negotiated before the current phase is completed.

Israel is still delaying the start of negotiations for the second phase of the agreement, which was supposed to begin on February 3.

The first phase of the agreement generally includes Israel handing over 33 prisoners, both living and dead, in batches.

Until the seventh batch that took place today, Israel received 19 living prisoners in addition to the bodies of 4 others.

Israel is scheduled to receive 6 living prisoners on Saturday, in addition to 4 bodies of prisoners next week, thus ending the prisoner exchange operations within the first phase of the agreement.

In return, Israel has so far released 1,135 Palestinians, including dozens of prisoners serving life sentences, while it is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners this week and next week, bringing the total number of Palestinian prisoners released in the first phase of the agreement to 1,737.

It is worth noting that on November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.