New Delhi: The Israeli hostages taken by Hamas are "too valuable to kill" and Israel should do anything to get them back, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan Nahoum told NDTV in an exclusive interview today. Despite all their threats, Hamas, she said, "essentially want some of their own prisoners back".
Asked if it means that Israel should go for a prisoner exchange, she said while all Palestinian prisoners in Israel are terrorists, "We have a very high value for life... and I believe we should do anything to get our innocent citizens back".
This she however added, was her personal opinion and she cannot "speak for the government".
While unofficial figures more than 100 people have been taken hostage by Hamas during Saturday's raid in Israeli towns and villages near Gaza, there is no clear number of missing persons yet.
The government, she said, has now established a hotline and deputed a general to coordinate with the families who had their loved ones abducted.
"We spent three days in shock about the quantity of the injured, the dead, the captured, which is completely unprecedented. So in the last 24 hours Israel has gathered its resolve to fight back," she said, underscoring that the war would be protracted and the world "must choose a side now".
"The Hamas are the long arm of Iran. They are a genocidal regime that's going to put back the world by 500 years... I believe Iran is behind all of this. They are the big puppet masters and the reason that this is happening is that Israel is normalizing with the Arab world... with Saudi Arabia... and the biggest losers of that deal is Iran… The world is now divided into countries that want peace and prosperity for their people and the countries that want radicalism and destruction… The world watching this now has to make a choice – who do you want to be with," she said.
On Saturday, Iran took the lead in celebrating the Hamas assault in which at least 1,500 gunmen charged across the border and went on a rampage through Israeli communities that left more than 900 people dead. They slaughtered over 200 young people enjoying a music festival, and kidnapped elderly women, children, and entire families, who are now being held as hostages, Israel said.
The government retaliated and has been pounding Gaza with fierce air strikes since. Around 1,600 people have died on both sides of the border.
Today, Israeli bombardments hit the area of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Rafah is the sole crossing point into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for Gaza's 2.3 million residents.