Hamas threatens Israel:

“Hostages return to families in coffins”

There are said to be 97 hostages still held by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups.(Bild: AP)

Almost eleven months after the major Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 97 hostages are still being held by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, according to Israeli reports. 33 of them are presumed dead. Hamas is threatening that they will return to their families "in coffins" if Israel continues to exert military pressure.

The "stubbornness" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu means "that they will return to their families in coffins", explained the spokesman of Hamas' armed arm, the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, on Monday.

The guards of the hostages had been given new instructions in case Israeli soldiers approached their location, he added.

In the largest mass protests since the beginning of the Gaza war, hundreds of thousands had demanded an immediate agreement with the Islamist Hamas on Sunday evening.(Bild: AFP/Menahem Kahana / AFP)

On Sunday, Israeli authorities announced the death of six hostages who had been found in a tunnel near Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, the four men and two women had been "murdered by Hamas terrorists with several shots fired at close range", according to an autopsy "approximately 48 to 72 hours" before the forensic examination on Sunday.

On Monday evening, Netanyahu asked for "forgiveness" for the unsuccessful rescue of the hostages, but wants to remain firm in the negotiations on the ceasefire agreement.