JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Arab Islamist politician in Israel appealed to Hamas on Tuesday to free, on religious grounds, some of the Israeli hostages taken during the Gaza-based Palestinian faction’s cross-border rampage over the weekend.
“The values of Islam oblige us not to take women, children and the elderly as captives,” Mansour Abbas, head of the United Arab List party, said in a social media post, adding that their release would be a “humanitarian measure required forthwith”.
Hamas, an Islamist group, has said it took dozens of captives back to the Gaza Strip, and has signalled it might want to trade them for thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel. Hamas’s ally Islamic Jihad said it had more than 30 captives.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told CNN the number of hostages in Gaza was between 100 and 150.
According to their relatives and video on social media, these include elderly women and young children, as well as Israeli soldiers.
Mansour’s party is in the Israeli parliamentary opposition, having been a member of the previous coalition government. It draws on support from Israel’s 20% Arab minority, many of whom identify with the Palestinians.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Gareth Jones)
