Live updates on the Israel-Hamas war.
News spoke to the official in Beirut.
Al-Shifa hospital evacuated
Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
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The war, which has now moved into its second stage, according to Israel, has passed the one-month mark.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured since Oct. 7, according to Israeli officials. In the neighboring Gaza Strip, at least 12,300 people have been killed and over 30,000 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Aid workers and officials fear that Israel’s call for an evacuation of the northern part of Gaza is precipitating a humanitarian disaster as electricity and other supplies have been cut off in preparation for what appears to be an imminent ground offensive.
Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to call off the evacuation and agree to a cease-fire, even as the country has asserted a right to defend itself — a right the United States endorses.
In a sit-down interview with ABC News in Beirut on Saturday, Osama Hamdan, a senior official with Hamas in Lebanon, said the goal of the Oct. 7 attack was to show Israel and the world that the „Palestinian cause is still alive.“
He said he believes that the operation has worked to that end.
„The United States start to talk about the rights of the Palestinians. All the world starts to talk about the rights of the Palestinians,“ he said.
Despite eyewitness accounts, news reports and video evidence, Hamdan denied that Hamas killed innocent people at a music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7 or that they took civilian hostages from Israel. Hamdan claimed that Hamas militants only took military „prisoners,“ and that civilian hostages were taken by other groups. He said Hamas is willing to release hostages — but only if Israel agrees to a cease-fire.
More than 260 bodies were recovered from the musical festival following the attack, Israeli officials said. At least 1,200 people total were killed in Israel and nearly 240 people were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli officials said.
Asked if Hamas bears any responsibility for the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians, Hamdan said „it may take more sacrifices“ but that more lives could be saved „by forcing Israel to recognize the rights of the Palestinians, to leave the occupied lands“ and to let Palestinians determine their future.
