6 freed Palestinian detainees killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL
Six freed Palestinian detainees were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, a medical source said on Tuesday.
The source said the victims, the majority of them exiled from the West Bank, lost their lives after fighter jets hit tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Zawayda town in central Gaza and the Al-Mawasi area of western Khan Younis.
Five of them were released in 2011 under a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter told Anadolu.
The sixth was among those exiled from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the southern West Bank in 2002, according to the source.
In 2002, the Church of the Nativity was besieged by Israeli forces for 39 days, after nearly 200 Palestinians took refuge in the church amid an Israeli raid on the city.
After the siege, 38 Palestinians were exiled to the Gaza Strip and Europe following an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to lift the siege on the church.
“The new killings are evidence of the deep-seated Israeli hatred,” leading Hamas member Abdel Hakim Hanini said in a statement.
“The assassination of prisoners is part of a policy of revenge and systematic killing against those who resisted, and spent their lives in the dungeons of injustice.
“The killings are added to a long record of crimes and massacres committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” Hanini said.
The Israeli army has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
