Free Republic

Hamas on Sunday threatened to kill all of its remaining hostages if demands such as more aid for Gaza and prisoner exchanges were not met, after suffering repeated losses in its battle with Israel. The Palestinian terror group is still holding the bodies of 20 hostages who died in captivity, Israel said over the weekend. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, claimed Sunday that not another single kidnap victim will leave Gaza alive unless Israel agrees to all its demands in negotiations that broke down at the start of December. At least some of those demands have been...

A spokesman for Hamas’s “military wing”, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned Thursday of renewed fighting with Israel if talks in Cairo to extend a 72-truce in Gaza collapsed. “We appeal to the Palestinian delegation to not accept a ceasefire, unless it satisfies the demands of our people,” a spokesman using the nom-de-guerre Abu Obeida said in a televised address, adding that Hamas fighters were “ready to return to battle.” …

A new Palestinian militant group whose members have been trained to carry out rocket-launching and bombing operations was reportedly formed in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh to carry out among others an attack on the Egyptian embassy. Al-Balad daily reported on Sunday that a Palestinian named Jamal Hamad formed the organization, which he named "Jihad movement for the victory of Gaza" with the assistance of Ghandi Sahmarani, a Lebanese wanted from the authorities on several terrorist charges. The newspaper said several militants from Jund al-Sham and Osbat al-Ansar have joined the new group. The militants have received training...

The Lebanese army was laying siege to a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, demanding the handover of a man accused of killing three of its intelligence agents before taking refuge with a militant Palestinian group inside. The army, which sent reinforcements into the Sidon area 40 kilometers (south of Beirut and around the camp, called on camp leaders to seek out and surrender Badih Hamade, a Lebanese Shiite. According to AFP, Palestinian sources said Friday, that Hamade was hiding in the Ain al Helweh camp with Sheikh Abdullah Shreidi, leader of a splinter group of the fundamentalist Usbat al-Ansar,...