Hamas guard who killed Israeli hostage acted ‘in revenge’ against instructions, group claims

A Hamas guard who fatally shot an Israeli hostage earlier this week acted “in revenge” after being told that two of his children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, the terror group said Thursday.

The slaying of the male hostage was carried out against Hamas’ instructions, a spokesperson for the group’s armed al-Qassam Brigades claimed.

“The (Hamas) soldier assigned as guard acted in a retaliatory manner against instructions after he received information that his two children were martyred in one of the massacres conducted by the enemy,” the spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, said in a post on Telegram.

“The incident doesn’t represent our ethics and the instructions of our religion in dealing with captives. We will reinforce the instructions.”

It comes after Hamas officials revealed Monday that a group of guards watching over hostages in Gaza had killed the man and seriously injured two females in two separate incidents.

The group hasn’t released the names of the hostages or specified when and where the incidents unfolded.

The Hamas spokesman, who is the same man who once threatened to execute Israeli hostages and publish the footage, only claimed that wounded hostages were being treated.

The Israel Defense Forces said at the time that there was no initial intelligence that could confirm or deny Hamas’ claims.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The timing of Hamas’ revelation comes as a new round of cease-fire talks got underway behind closed doors in Qatar.

The talks — an effort to end 10 months of fighting and bring 115 Israeli and foreign hostages home — were put together as Iran appeared on the point of retaliating against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

Hamas officials, who have accused Israel of stalling, did not join Thursday’s talks, according to an official briefed on the meeting.