Iran and the current ceasefire/hostage release deal with Hamas are on center stage this week as President Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as the first foreign leader since his inauguration. While celebrated for releasing hostages, a ceasefire that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza is bad for Israel, for Palestinian Arabs, and the world.
All eyes are literally on the spectacle of Hamas’ made for TV production, releasing hostages who have been in captivity for more than 480 days, and which is as unsurprising as it is revolting. This underscores what we have known all along: that every day of captivity for every single one of the 251 who were taken hostage is a war crime. It is not just the illegality and immorality of taking hostages to begin with, but the torture and suffering to which they have been subject each day. Just like they filmed and broadcast their atrocities of burning and beheading live human beings, shooting, raping, and kidnapping on October 7, 2023, they are ending the captivity of some of them in as inhuman a way as they captured them.
Before their release, armed Hamas terrorists presented “gift bags” of mementos of their captivity to their victims. Hostages have been forced to write letters thanking their captors. Hamas created a certificate of release, which even the reprehensible Red Cross has played along with by publicly signing the document together as if they were signing some international treaty, or entering into a huge joint venture business. It’s become transparent that Hamas and the International Red Cross (ICRC) are collaborating, with the ICRC enabling Hamas to hold all these people hostage without ever once checking on their well-being, or insisting upon the ability to do so. Even the Nazis did not think of having millions of Jewish victims sign a release before they were shot, gassed, and burned. Joseph Gobbles would be proud.
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Respecting the privacy and need for gradually dealing with their captivity and traumas experienced, news of the hostages’ suffering is coming out slowly. Family members of recently released hostages have described the physical and emotional toll their loved ones have endured. They were held in inhuman conditions throughout their captivity including suffering severe malnutrition, physical and psychological torture, and being locked up in cages.
The hostages lived in conditions with no hygiene, in airless dark tunnels. Some have lost dozens of pounds and are suffering other physical ailments. In addition to massive medical and nutritional care needed, some of the released hostages have reportedly required sedatives due to the tremendous psychological trauma to which they have been subject for 16 months.
But Hamas is not content to make a deal and get their terrorists back without inflicting the greatest trauma and humiliation on the hostages until the very last minute. Before releasing the hostages, Hamas parades them through threatening crowds of hundreds of armed masked terrorists, along with thousands of rage-infused civilians, calling into question whether any civilians in Gaza are actually innocent or are in fact part and parcel of the Hamas machine. At any minute, these violent crowds could be triggered to lynch and beat to death any of the hostages being released in glorification of their God, Allah.
One can only imagine what the global outrage would be if Israel were to try such vulgar acts when releasing hundreds of terrorists as part of the deal. One thing is certain, as much as the world is silent now about the vulgar Hamas spectacle, it would be unhinged in condemning Israel if it were to do a fraction of the inhuman things that Hamas is doing.
So far, the Hamas made-for-television production has been with live hostages. They have forced the hostages on stages in front of banners with propaganda glorifying their jihadi genocide goals and destruction of Israel, and massive jeering crowds. They have forced the hostages to wear fake military looking uniforms to mask the fact that they were kidnapped, beaten, abused, paraded through thousands of hate-infused jihadi Gazans in their pajamas 486 days ago. The hostages have been forced to wave and smile at the taunting crowds, as if they had just won an election, or Miss Universe. No doubt, all this will be used for future macabre propaganda productions.
What additional vulgarity will they do when releasing the corpses of hostages who they kidnapped 16 months ago, who they murdered then, or during their captivity?
What is certain is that they will do whatever they can to extract the greatest amount of pain, suffering, and trauma on the hostages and their family members, as well as all of Israel. What is also clear is that the world has become largely silent on this atrocity, and that maximum pressure must be maintained on Hamas and their supporters and funders in Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.
As discussions and negotiations begin this week for a second phase of the current agreement that would supposedly have Hamas release the remaining hostages and a possible Israeli withdrawal from most/all of Gaza beyond the merely defensive positions which it occupies now, maximum pressure and public outcry against Hamas’ inhumanity must become the standard. Sharing the truth of what’s going on and putting pressure on world bodies to force Hamas to comply are urgent.
Author’s Note: The Genesis 123 Foundation is hosting a webinar on February 6 about the terrorists who are being released, the number of people they have murdered and maimed, and the threat they pose. Pressure on Hamas from around the world is essential to reduce the risk and get all the hostages returned as soon as possible. But the price Israel is paying is massive and may risk more lives as hardened terrorists who have the blood of hundreds of people on their hands are released.
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