Al-Qassam leadership: Fate of Israeli captives hinges on decisions of the Tel Aviv government

The leadership of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades said on Thursday evening that the occupation’s prisoners held inside Gaza’s neighborhoods “have a fate linked to the choices of the occupation government,” warning that any continuation of the aggression or expansion of operations will prevent occupation forces from recovering any prisoner, alive or dead.

In a military statement, the leadership said Gaza “will not be an easy target” for the Israeli army, affirming its full readiness to confront it. The statement added that al-Qassam has prepared “suicide attackers and thousands of ambushes and improvised explosive devices,” and that any advance by occupation forces will be “costly in deaths and captives.”

The leadership also stressed that the coming war will have an attritional character for the enemy, and that its fighters have trained to place explosive charges in army vehicles, noting that Israeli bulldozers will be among the primary targets — a factor that could increase the number of prisoners held by the resistance.