Israel’s Prime Minister promises to “settle accounts” with Hamas after hostage-taking

Israel’s Prime Minister promises to “settle accounts” with Hamas after hostage-taking

JERUSALEM, September 1, 2024 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to “settle accounts” with Hamas after the military recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.

“Those who kill hostages do not want an agreement” for a ceasefire in Gaza, Netanyahu said in a statement, telling Hamas leaders: “We will hunt you down, we will catch you and we will settle the score.”

Netanyahu also accused Hamas of carrying out an armed attack near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

“We are fighting on all fronts against a cruel enemy that wants to murder us all. Just this morning it murdered three police officers in Hebron,” he said, referring to Hamas.

“The fact that Hamas continues to commit atrocities like those of October 7 obliges us to do everything in our power to ensure that it can no longer do so.”

Although Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack in the West Bank, it described it in a statement as a “heroic operation of the resistance”.

Three police officers, two men and a woman, were killed in a gun attack near the Tarqumiya checkpoint near the city of Hebron early Sunday, police said.

The Israeli military said the attackers fired at a vehicle at the checkpoint.

“Security forces have begun searching for the terrorists,” it said in a statement.