Hamas officials are in Moscow holding talks and on Friday Russian media reported that the militant group view all the hostages captured on 7 October “are Israelis.”
Irrespective of whatever passports they hold none of them will be released until one condition is met.
Hamas Politburo member Abu Marzouk told Russian media that many Western countries have asked for their citizens.
Hamas views Moscow’s request “more positively and attentively than the others, given the character of our relations with Russia.”
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Russian state media agency RIA that Russian or even American hostages are “for us, re Israelis, although there is an appeal to their original citizenship in the hope this will save them.”
Tel Aviv said this week that more than half of those captured on 7 October in southern Israel are from 25 different countries.
The Hamas delegation had met with representatives of Russia’s foreign ministry, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov told reporters, “We consider it necessary to continue our contacts with all parties and, of course, we will continue our dialogue with Israel.”
Following the US airstrikes in Syria on Friday which targeted the Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities that this is increasing tensions in the Middle East which is “very bad.”
On Friday the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in New York that Iran “stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.”
He said that Hamas are willing to release all civilian hostages, but only if 6,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons are released.
The Iranian Foreign Minister said the world “should support the release” of all the Palestinian prisoners.
