Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk provided clarifications regarding the characteristics, nationalities, and fate of the prisoners of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which was launched by the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation on October 7.

Abu Marzouk spoke about the prisoners held by Hamas, and other prisoners held by ordinary citizens and other factions.

Prisoners held by Hamas

Abu Marzouk explained that Hamas is holding about 200 prisoners, and considers them all Israelis, and does not give consideration to some of them holding other nationalities in addition to Israeli citizenship.

The Russian Information Agency quoted him as saying, "Hamas does not consider its captives to be Russian, French, or American."

"All those captured, for us, are Israelis although there is an appeal to look at their original nationalities in the hope that this will save them," he said.

Earlier, Russian media quoted leaders of the movement as saying that the movement considers all its prisoners to be Israelis, regardless of the additional passports they have, and it cannot release any of them until Israel agrees to a ceasefire.

Abu Marzouk said that Russia, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and many other countries called for the release of their citizens from among more than 200 prisoners held by Hamas.

Prisoners held by other parties

Regarding the prisoners held by parties other than Hamas, Abu Marzouk explained that “the movement needs time to search for them, classify them, and then release the civilians among them who do not hold Israeli nationalities.”

Abu Marzouk said, "After the Israeli army's defense lines were broken and the army's Gaza division fell, hundreds of citizens and dozens of fighters from various Palestinian factions entered the territories occupied in 1948 and arrested dozens, most of them civilians."

He stated, "Hamas presented from the first day its vision regarding civilian prisoners, which is that we want the release of all civilian detainees and foreigners who do not hold Israeli citizenship," adding that these "are our guests until the appropriate conditions are available for their release."

He said that these guests could not be released in light of the intense Israeli bombing, as the destructive force of the Israeli bombs that fell on Gaza during the past 20 days was equivalent to the nuclear bomb that struck Hiroshima.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted another member of the Hamas delegation as saying that the movement needs time to locate all those transferred by various Palestinian factions from Israel to Gaza.

Source: Al Jazeera