Hostage killed as Hamas repels Israeli rescue attempt in Gaza

The armed wing of Hamas stated on Friday that it had resisted an effort by Israeli special forces to rescue hostages in the Gaza Strip, resulting in multiple military fatalities as well as the death of a captive.

Israel refused to comment, claiming that it was being targeted by psychological warfare from the Palestinian Islamist side.

Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades alleged in a Telegram message that its members targeted a special forces unit that was conducting a rescue operation, killing and wounded multiple troops in the process. The incident’s location was mentioned.

It stated that a 25-year-old Israeli soldier named Sa’ar Baruch was killed while a prisoner. Israel has released lists of the captives, and among them is a civilian student named Sahar Baruch. Baruch was 24 years old when he was taken from his home during the cross-border Hamas assassination and kidnapping spree that began on October 7 and started the war.

Of some 240 people taken hostage that day, 137 remain in Gaza captivity after others were recovered during a truce. Some have had Israeli officials declare them dead in absentia.

“We are not going to comment on psychological warfare that Hamas continues to wage against the people of Israel,” Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, said in a briefing when asked about the Hamas account of the botched raid.

(With agency inputs)