Hamas said on Saturday it had lost contact with the group responsible for five Israeli hostages being held captive in the Gaza Strip by Israeli fire, Reuters reported.

The Palestinian Islamist group believes the hostages were killed in an Israeli raid, Abu Ubaydah, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement on the group’s Telegram channel.

Reuters could not verify the information, and Israeli authorities did not immediately respond.

Israel says Hamas took about 240 hostages when it killed 1,200 people in a raid in southern Israel on October 7.

Hamas said last month that more than 60 hostages had disappeared as a result of Israeli airstrikes. There was no confirmation of the number, but Israel believes 20 or more of the roughly 130 hostages still being held in Gaza are dead.

The militants freed more than 100 hostages as part of a week-long ceasefire agreement in late November that included the release of 240 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli prisons.

The families of the hostages staged a new rally on Saturday, demanding that Israel consider releasing senior Palestinian militants from prisons as part of any new exchange deal.