Hamas claims to have killed male Israeli hostage

The armed wing of Hamas has said that one of the Israeli hostages it has held since October 7 has been killed by his guards and two female hostages had been wounded in a separate incident.

No identification has been made in either case and Israel said it was unable to verify the claims.

In a statement, Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said: “In two separate incidents, two [Hamas] soldiers assigned to guard enemy prisoners fired at a Zionist prisoner, killing him immediately, and also injured two female prisoners critically.”

The claim, made on the Telegram social media site, comes days before Thursday’s projected negotiations to free the remaining 111 hostages still held in Gaza, though Israel believes that until this announcement, 39 hostages have died in captivity.

Reports say that Hamas has formed a committee to investigate the shootings. Abu Obeida did not say where the incidents took place.

Responding to the Hamas claim, an IDF spokesman, Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on Twitter/X. He said: “In the last few minutes, the terrorist Hamas published a written report claiming that in two separate incidents, Hamas activists killed an Israeli captive and wounded two women captives.

“At this stage, there is no intelligence document to confirm or refute Hamas’ allegations. We continue to investigate the credibility of the statement and will provide information where we have it.”

In June, a senior Hamas official said that “no-one has any idea” how many Israeli hostages were still alive in Gaza.