Turning the Hamas Screw

"Recent evidence from those released, as well as the shocking conditions of the hostages released last Saturday, leaves no room for doubt -- time is of the essence, and all hostages must be urgently rescued from this horrific situation."

Hostages and Missing Family Forum

 

"Hamas' announcement of a halt to the release of Israeli hostages constitutes a complete violation of both the ceasefire agreement and the hostage release deal." 

"I have directed the IDF to maintain the highest state of readiness for any possible scenario in Gaza and for the defense of our communities."

"We will not allow a return to the reality of October 7." 

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz 

Released Israeli hostages Or Levy (L), Ohad Ben Ami (C), and Eli Sharabi (R). Photo credit: Arab media

The murderously sadistic savagery of October 7 was an unprovoked terrorist decision by Hamas 'officials' to engage in a pre-prepared, well-orchestrated pogrom breaking a longstanding ceasefire agreement between the terrorist body and the State of Israel. It was a devastating break of an agreement that neither Israel nor Hamas would commit to mounting any large-scale incursion to break the tension of a tendentious ceasefire, one that Hamas decided to set brusquely aside in its intention to storm southern Israel, its operatives instructed to maim, dismember, rape, murder and abduct Israeli citizens in an obvious declaration of war.

 

Hamas did this, knowing full well what the repercussions would be, given their proclivity to sudden attacks and swift withdrawals where their members would integrate themselves with the general Gaza population whose dense presence would act as a deterrence on Israel's military response. Batteries of rockets shot off from launchers adjacent to schools, mosques, apartment buildings would be returned by the Israel Defense Forces to the sites which launched them, feeding into the Hamas larger scheme of publicity, geared to convince the international community that Israel's reaction is one of genocide against Palestinian civilians.

 

The world of the West reacts predictably, censuring Israel for responding to deadly attacks and creating casualties among the population while attempting to rout out the terrorists. Gaza's tunnels, providing haven for Hamas operatives and as communication and weapons storage sites, are located throughout Gaza, and typically under and accessible through mosques, crowded civilian communities, schools and shopping centres. World opinion forces Israel to react more circumspectly than the occasion demands making it difficult to attain its objective of destroying Hamas and counter its intent to conduct more and greater October 7s.

 

 

The ceasefire and agreement brokered by Hamas sponsor Qatar, and the United States took place with Israel's consent only because Israelis are desperate to rescue the hostages still in the hands of the terrorists and their civilian allies in Gaza. The abysmal condition of the last three hostages, starved and tormented, augurs ill for the condition of the remaining hostages, making it increasingly urgent for Israel to secure their release, whether alive or dead.

 

The Israeli government, under intense pressure from the families of the hostages, is anxious to clear the issue of those Israelis imprisoned in Gaza under life-threatening conditions, as exchange material for Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons, to enable the Israeli military to return to its pledged mission of destroying Hamas. To the present there have been five exchanges of handfuls of Israelis who have suffered torture and deprivation of the basic elements of vital nutrition, suffering critical health crises in disproportional exchange for hundreds of Palestinians.

 

Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy are presented on a stage before being handed over to the Red Cross.   Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

 

The hostages are Hamas's trump card, knowing full well the Jewish tradition of loyalty to all their members' welfare, with the objective of rescuing every one. They serve a trade function, but also a living example of how malicious maltreatment of Jews can stop the government from tasking the IDF with confronting and destroying Hamas members, a vow that will continue until that promise of eradication of Palestinian terrorism feeding off Israeli lives takes final place. 

That the United States, under returned-to-the-White-House President Donald Trump, is exerting its power on behalf of the return of the hostages, and itself pledging to bring about a change in the situation where Israel has neighbours intent on obliterating it, represents both a help and a hindrance. In recognition of the aid the United States has traditionally offered Israel in all fora and forms, Israel is handicapped in acting fully in its own interests. Israel does, however, recognize that whatever it commits to, it will always fail to satisfy the demands that the international community expects of it, when none among them would ever themselves be the least bit restrained in responding to a bloody act of war.

 

As though to convince the world that the Palestinian Authority under Fatah's President Mahmoud Abbas can be relied upon to be a better choice to command both the 'West Bank' and the 'Gaza Strip', a promise was made to end the controversial 'Pay for Slay' system the PA uses to financially reward the terrorists that the PA itself has groomed to violence against Israel. A move, in fact, to placate President Trump, that the PA is prepared to no longer enrich their own terrorists committing deadly attacks on Israel. The incentives to kill Jews through the 'Martyrs Fund' will henceforth proceed in a more discreet manner.

 

"The resistance leadership has closely monitored the enemy's violations and its failure to uphold the terms of the agreement", said Hamas spokesman Obeida, claiming that Israel had violated the terms of the ceasefire by not permitting the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza, instead carrying out strikes across the Strip, and failing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid. As for President Abbas's promise, the families of prisoners will remain eligible for government 'assistance'.

 

Hamas terrorists seen before a hostage release in Gaza City, February 1, 2025

(photo credit: Ali Hassan/Flash90)