Al-Qassam Brigades reveal identities of four Israeli hostages killed in Gaza airstrikes

Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, announced on Saturday the identities of four Israeli hostages who were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

“We previously announced the killing of seven Zionist hostages as a result of the savage Zionist airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and we revealed the names of three of them,” said Abu Ubaida, Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson, on Telegram.

He added that “after examining and verifying the identities of the remaining four fatalities, it has been confirmed that ... Itzik Elgarat, Alex Dancyg, Ronen Angel, and Eliyahu Margalit" were killed.

On March 1, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the killing of seven Israeli hostages in its custody in an attack by the Israeli army after weeks of losing contact with the group capturing them, bringing the death toll of hostages in the Gaza Strip to 70.

A statement then announced the names of three hostages, including “Hayim Gershon Perry, Yoram Etaq Mitzger, and Amiram Israel Kuper,” in both Arabic and Hebrew.

Israel estimates that there are more than 125 hostages in Gaza, while it has detained at least 8,800 Palestinians in its prisons, according to official sources from both sides.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack led by Hamas, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.

At least 30,960 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and 72,524 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, leaving its population, particularly residents in the north where the Feb. 29 shootings took place, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.