The head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, affirmed that the only way Israeli captives would be released alive is if all Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons were freed. 

In a televised speech during a conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, held in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, Haniyeh restated "Israel's" explicit goals of "destroying Hamas, returning the captives, and employing its forced displacement of Palestinians plan" throughout the war.

The top Hamas official also suggested that three developments preceded the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, imposing an unconventional approach to confrontation, namely: 

1. Marginalization of the Palestinian cause locally and internationally.

2. Arrival of a Zionist government prioritizing the displacement of our people and imposing its sovereignty over al-Aqsa Mosque.

3. Normalization efforts and the integration of the occupation in the region, dealing with it at the expense of our people and our cause.

Thus, Operation Al Aqsa Flood formulated an adequate response, and successfully delivered a powerful blow to the Israeli occupation, shaking its military and political leadership. 

🇮🇱🇵🇸 🔴‼️ BREAKING: ISRAEL WILL NOT GET A SINGLE PRISONER BACK — ISMAIL HANIYEH SAYS IN QATAR

“After 100 days, the [Israeli] army, the forces the intelligence services & the Western planes that have come over Gaza looking for prisoners were not able to get one prisoner back. We… pic.twitter.com/yjyYPetN4k

— Lounge Digest (@loungedigest) January 9, 2024

Haniyeh had previously pointed out that "the Israeli enemy will pay the price for its crimes," adding that the heroic actions of the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Resistance are evident during confrontations and are inflicting significant losses to the enemy, affirming that the battle in Gaza "is approaching its honorable end" due to the legendary resilience of the people of the Strip and their courageous resistance.

Read more: US, 'Israel' had no political, military achievements: Amir-Abdollahian

'Let them feel the wrath of the Resistance'

This comes as "Israel" resumes its genocide in Gaza amid heightened violence in the West Bank and attacks on Lebanon and Syria. 

Following the assassination and martyrdom of Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, Iranian officials asserted to Haniyeh that the enemy, in assassinating the leaders of the Resistance, seeks to mitigate its heavy defeat in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

General Esmail Qaani, Commander of the Quds Force in Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), stressed that the world will witness how the brothers of martyr al-Arouri will turn into a nightmare for this murderous, children-killing entity.

Furthermore, the advisor to the Iranian leader, Ali Akbar Velayati, affirmed that "these crimes reveal the failure of the Zionists on all fronts and battlefields, especially since Operation Al-Quds Flood."

"Let the Zionists know that the Palestinian Resistance will not be deterred by such actions; instead, it will grow stronger," Velayati stressed.