Hamas says lost contact with group holding 5 Israeli hostages in Gaza

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said Saturday that it has lost contact with a group holding five Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, fearing some of the hostages may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The spokesman for the Brigades Abu Ubaida said in a statement that the Brigades had lost contact with the group "during an Israeli raid."

He reported the names of three out of the five hostages, indicating that the Qassam Brigades suspect their deaths in one of the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, while did not give further details to the other two hostages.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.