At least 3,000 people have been killed in the war, which began on Saturday.
As the war between Israel and Gaza entered its fifth day on Wednesday, a heartbreaking video has surfaced, showing how Hamas is using Israeli hostages – including children – as bargaining chips.
The video, live-streamed by Hamas, shows a gunman ordering a family to talk while a man bleeds from his leg and his wife sits next to him, with a young girl in her lap. Two other children sit on either side of the couple, with a sobbing girl holding her mouth to keep from screaming.
“Talk to your country, tell them we are here,” the gunman tells the man, who says that Hamas operatives are in their house in the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, close to Gaza. Looking into the camera, the man says he has been shot in the leg.
A Hamas operative asks the man for an identity card and when he says he needs to get up to find it, he is helped up by one of the hostage-takers, the profusely bleeding wound on his leg clearly visible.
The gunmen are then seen forcing the couple’s son, at gunpoint, to persuade other people in the neighbourhood to leave their homes.
Hamas Threat
Hamas is holding at least 150 hostages, including children and a holocaust survivor, and has threatened to kill one hostage every time Israel drops a bomb, without warning, on a civilian home in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’ chilling warning came after Israel ordered a siege of the Gaza strip, cutting off electricity and water, and stopping food and fuel from entering the densely populated territory, which is home to 2.3 million people.
No Turning Back?
Despite running the risk of hostage killings making it unpopular, the Israeli government has shown no signs of easing its massive military offensive against Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Hamas to ISIS and said his country’s actions are only the start of a sustained war to destroy the group and “change the Middle East”.
“Hamas terrorists bound, burned and executed children. They are savages. Hamas is ISIS,” Mr Netanyahu said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also took a hardline stance while addressing troops deployed along the Gaza border on Tuesday, stating that he has released all restraints and Gaza will “never go back to what it was”.
“You will have the ability to change the reality here. You have seen the prices (being paid), and you will get to see the change. Hamas wanted a change in Gaza; it will change 180 degrees from what it thought,” The Times of Israel quoted the minister as saying.
“They will regret this moment, Gaza will never go back to what it was,” Mr Gallant said, adding that Israel would, without compromise, eliminate “whoever comes to decapitate, murder women, Holocaust survivors”.
At least 3,000 people have been killed in the deadly conflict, which began after Hamas fired 5,000 rockets into Israel on Saturday and launched a multi-pronged attack on the country, from air, land and sea.
