A Hamas guard who killed an Israeli hostage acted in revenge after his two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Palestinian resistance group said on Thursday.
The Qassam Brigades, the group's armed wing, said Monday that an Israeli hostage was killed and two others were injured after being shot by their guards in two separate incidents.
"An investigation into the killing of an enemy prisoner by his guard found that the guard acted in revenge against instruction after he got information that his two children were martyred in one of the massacres committed by the enemy,” Abu Obeida, a spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, said in a statement on Telegram.
"The incident doesn't represent our ethics and the instructions of our religion in dealing with captives. We will reinforce the instructions," he added.
The spokesman held Israel fully responsible for the dangers facing its hostages “as a result of its violation of all the rules of humane and humanitarian treatment and its brutal genocide against our people."
In a later message, Hamas posted: "Your Brutality is an Imminent Danger to Your Prisoners" along with a photo of the dead hostage.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the statement.
Israel estimates that around 115 Israelis are held in Gaza, of which Hamas said dozens were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
The Israeli onslaught has since killed over 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,400 others, according to local health authorities.
Over 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara
