(Second of a three part series)

Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss has defended the Israel Defense Forces’ successful rescue of four hostages in Gaza, calling accusations of the use of excessive force “preposterous.”

The IDF operation, conducted on 8 June in Nuseirat, Central Gaza, was aimed at rescuing Israeli hostages, with international agencies reporting that the area was subjected to “unnecessary” heavy bombardment.

“It’s (absolutely) ridiculous,” Fluss said during an interview on DAILY TRIBUNE’s digital show Usapang OFW, dismissing the accusations and criticizing what he termed as misleading reports by foreign media outlets.

“Hamas uses human shields and civilian areas and is putting the hostages in civilian homes. Now, what do they expect? Holding those hostages is a war crime, and the IDF and any other military in any other country will do everything to release those hostages and bring them back home. This is our responsibility to our citizens,” Fluss said.

The hostages — Noa Argamani, 26; Almog Meir Jan, 22; Andrei Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 41 — were taken during the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 and were held in Gaza, a Hamas stronghold, for eight months before their rescue.

In a Twitter post, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, described the rescue operation as appalling.

Fluss reiterated that the IDF provides advance warnings to civilians before launching attacks to allow them to evacuate.

Deeply involved

“Civilians, unfortunately, in this case most of them are deeply involved in actively supporting Hamas. It is now difficult to differentiate Hamas from the civilians,” he said.

According to Fluss, Hamas’s use of civilian areas for military operations makes it challenging to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

Fluss also confirmed that three of the four rescued hostages had been held in the house of a doctor whose son was affiliated with a Middle Eastern media organization.

“His name is Abdullah Jaman, if I am not mistaken. He even used to work as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Hamas and was also involved in operating some news outlets, certainly known as a journalist. Imagine a journalist holding those hostages, together with his father who is a doctor,” Fluss said.

“So how can we tell the distinction between civilians and Hamas, and we are claiming all the time that those civilians are innocent? We have evidence of quite a few journalists and doctors working for Hamas. We cannot simply say that civilians are innocent, we have such clear proof of that,” he said.

Currently, Hamas is holding 120 hostages, including two infants and 11 women. According to Israeli intelligence, 39 of these hostages are known to be dead.

Fluss indicated that Israeli authorities have no definitive information about the status of the remaining hostages, noting that much of their knowledge is based on assumptions.

“We want to bring back those still alive to their families. Of course, the dead should be buried properly in their hometowns. Not all of the families of the dead were notified, as the deceased hostages are not yet identified, verified,” Fluss said.

Hamas demands

He affirmed that Israel remains committed to securing the release of the hostages, either through military operations or negotiations. However, he pointed out that negotiations have been hampered by Hamas’ demands, which include the release of terrorists and a complete ceasefire.

“Hamas wants us to release terrorists in exchange for hostages. Certainly, they want a total ceasefire and to withdraw all the IDF activities, which means the end of this war. Israel is giving a lot of conditions because how can you trust a terror organization?” Fluss said.

Negotiations are currently being led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, while Hamas is seeking additional guarantors for the talks, including Turkey, Russia and China.