In a statement released on Telegram this Friday, he named three of the deceased captives as Haim Gershon Peri, Yoram Itak Metzger, and Amiram Israel Kooper, confirming that a number of their guards were also killed.

The Al-Qassam spokesman added that the total number of Israeli captives who have died in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli shelling has exceeded seventy.

He pointed out that "the price we will take for either five living captives or ten is the same price we would have taken for all the captives if they had not been killed by the enemy's bombing operations."

During a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, approximately 250 hostages were taken and transferred to Gaza, and there are still 130 of them in the enclave. It is believed that 31 of them have perished, according to Israel.

Similar to the previous ceasefire, which lasted a week in November and saw the release of more than 100 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners, Qatar, Egypt, and the United States are leading efforts to reach a new agreement.

International pressure has been mounting in recent weeks to cease fire, as the death toll from the Israeli military assault on the Palestinian territory has exceeded 30,000 people, most of whom are women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.