Hamas' Qassam brigades say Netanyahu 'lying' about captured soldiers

Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, responded on Friday to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's claims that progress had been made on the release of four captive Israeli soldiers, calling him a "liar".

The paramilitary group's spokesman, Abu Obaida, said there had been no negotiations on the servicemen's release and released images of the soldiers, all of whom were captured at separate times, on the Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV.

"Netanyahu is lying to his people and deluding his supporters with these statements as well as deceiving the parents and families of the captives," Abu Obaida said.

"There have been no negotiations or communication until now on the captured enemy soldiers. The enemy will not receive any information on the fate of these four soldiers without paying a heavy price before and after the negotiations," he added.

Netanyahu recently said that he was personally following the cases of the four soldiers and that "significant developments" had been made on the issue.

Also on Friday, the al-Qassam Brigades said its English and Arabic-language Twitter accounts had been closed for the third time in two weeks.

One of the closed accounts had accrued more than 140,000 followers, it said in a statement.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by several Western nations.

The Qassam Brigades accused Twitter of showing a "clear bias to the Israeli occupation where it should (adopt a) neutral position toward both sides".