In a 25-minute video commemorating the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel, in what the group and other Palestinian fighting factions have dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida said he could not rule out more deaths among the remaining Israeli captives due to “the danger of crossfire”.

“You could have reclaimed all your captives a year ago,” he added, saying that the intention has always been to keep them alive in Gaza and exchange them for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

This is a fight meant to drain Israel of its resources, Abu Obeida said.

“[We face] an entity whose age is less than that of the shoes in mosques and churches in Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Hebron, and Jaffa, and Nablus, and Sidon and Tyre and Beirut,” he said.

In its relatively short life as a nation, he added that Israel has not lived a year without constantly being reminded it has “stolen Arab land” and that it occupies “our country”.

“What did the world do for our people in the West Bank?” Abu Obeida said. “Those who are subject to displacement and slow, systematic extermination?”

“This enemy only understands the language of power,” Abu Obeida said. “And the weapon is only confronted with the weapon.”