Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday the ground operation launched by Israeli troops in Gaza was the second stage in a war against Hamas that would be long and difficult. Speaking at a news conference, he said every effort would be made to rescue the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas. Hamas’s armed wing said Saturday it was ready to release the hostages it abducted during its shock attack on October 7 if Israel freed all Palestinians held in its prisons. “The price to pay for the large number of enemy hostages in our hands is to empty the (Israeli) prisons of all Palestinian prisoners,” Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement broadcast by the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television channel. “If the enemy wants to close this file of detainees in one go, we are ready for it. If it wants to do it step-by-step, we are ready for that too.” Some 229 hostages are being held by militants in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army. On Thursday, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said “almost 50” hostages had been killed in Israeli bombing raids in the three weeks since the war began. AFP was not immediately able to verify the figure. Israel has been building up to a ground invasion since Hamas fighters stormed across the border on October 7, seizing hostages and killing more than 1,400 people, mainly civilians, Israeli officials say. More than 7,700 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, including about 3,500 children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has warned that the “humanitarian and human rights consequences” of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza Strip will be “devastating and long-lasting”. In a statement, he said, “Given the manner in which military operations have been conducted until now, in the context of the 56-year-old occupation, I am raising alarm about the possibly catastrophic consequences of large-scale ground operations in Gaza and the potential for thousands more civilians to die.” “There is no safe place in Gaza and there is no way out. I am very worried for my colleagues, as I am for all civilians in Gaza,” Turk emphasised. Noting that “continued violence is not the answer”, he called on all parties to do “all in their power to de-escalate this conflict”. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has said that the current situation in Gaza – after the Israeli military conducted relentless bombing overnight – is “horrific”. After all communications were cut last night, Unicef said it has been “able to contact only a few of its humanitarian staff in the Gaza Strip”.