MOSCOW, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Israeli bombing of Gaza has killed 50 of the hostages seized during raids by Palestinian militants on Oct. 7, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying.

It quoted Abu Hamid as saying Hamas could not release the hostages until a ceasefire was agreed, and it needed time to locate all of those who had been taken to Gaza by various Palestinian factions.

The Palestinian Hamas group that controls Gaza cannot release hostages seized during its attack on Israel until a ceasefire is agreed, the Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted him as saying.

It quoted Abu Hamid as saying Hamas needed time to locate all of those who had been taken from Israel to Gaza by various Palestinian factions in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

“They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them,” Hamid said.

Kommersant quoted him as saying a calm environment was needed to complete this task. Hamas said on Thursday around 50 of the hostages had been killed in Israeli air strikes.

Israel has urged Russia to expel the visiting Hamas delegation, calling their invitation to Moscow “deplorable”.

Russia has ties to all the key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

It has repeatedly blamed the current crisis on a failure of U.S. diplomacy, and called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of talks aimed at finding a peace settlement.

Photo: 224 light projectors signifying those abducted by Hamas, light the sky near the Arena sports hall in Jerusalem, Israel, . According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), more than 224 people were taken hostage by Hamas on 07 October, when the militant group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. EPA-EFE/ABIR SULTAN