What are Hamas playing at?

[elprup]

It’s deeply worrying that Hamas haven’t returned all the dead hostages as agreed. I’ve seen comments saying it’s an impossible task given how Gaza has been reduced to rubble. But if that’s the case, they would have known they had lost the bodies. So why did they agree to return them if they knew they weren’t able to do so?

Of course he should be. But Governments don't tend to extradite their own prime minister. I suspect it is why he so keen to cling on to power.

@Cheeks4970 nothing says freedom fighter more than parading a raped and mutilated girl (who had the temerity to be at a music festival) through the streets for your adoring "innocent Gazans".

Its hardly the noble French Resistance in WW2 is it?

Trying to find what remained of their homes, whilst straying too close to Israeli troops. Whilst unarmed.

because they had value, dead or alive, from the moment they were crossed over the border to Gaza.
And they knew that Israel would want them back.
The whole point of a hostage is that they are leverage - be that dead or alive, so they are probably one of the most valuable assets that Hamas have, and I dont believe that they dont know where the majority of them are.
However we know that some people who crossed the border into Israel on the 7th were not Hamas fighters, they were opportunistic gazans who simply joined in, and if they had the chance to snatch someone and bring them back to do whatever they wanted with them, its possible that it was outside the organisation, and so those people are likely to be lost, as Hamas would not have necessarily brought them in as a collective.

Bipin Joshi saved his friends from injury and death by Hamas two years ago, only to be taken hostage by Hamas himself. His body was this week identified by one of his friends.

Would it help Bipin Joshi’s family to know that some of you believe that it was necessary for him to have been taken hostage, to die as a hostage, and not having his remains returned to his family for two years, because of the decisions of ‘brave resistance fighters’? I don’t think so.

Presumably they were so overcome with the emotion they failed to hear and follow the warnings they were given.

MN never fails to "amuse"

I would never condone what Hamas did two years ago, but I have to agree with you. I think the plan agreed last week was doomed to failure and it must surely have been obvious that it would not be possible to return all the bodies of the dead hostages by Monday. I think Trump and Netanyahu brokered this to get the living hostages back and to then have an excuse to resume the destruction of Gaza. Israel has already restricted aid and has already killed a number of Palestinians. I don’t see how this can ever end until the rest of the world stands up to Trump and and Israeli government, but that’s not going to happen.

I don’t understand why people were asked to take in Ukrainian women and children as soon as the war with Russia started, and were given incentives to do so, but there has never been a suggestion that we could be asked to do the same for Palestinian women and children from Gaza who are in a very very much worse position that any Ukrainian has ever been. Oh no, wait a minute, they aren’t allowed to leave the country even as refugees and have had to endure being displaced countless times when their homes have been obliterated and their families killed. 🙄🙄🙄

I also find it strange that what is going on in the West Bank is still being ignored. My son in law is Palestinian and was born in the West Bank. His family had their home and land taken by settlers when he was young and they fled to Jordan. People are still losing their homes today but the rest of the world still sits back and lets that happen, just as we’ve watched the destruction of Gaza for the last two years.

Leverage.

Various news sources and social media stating the Turkish expert team will soon arrive in Gaza. They'll be helping with the search for hostage remains, and other humanitarian work.

x.com/i24NEWS_FR/status/1978404526362071074

https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/10/15/turkish-rescue-team-departs-for-gaza-search-operations/

So why did they say they could and would return them? Why not say at the outset “we only have 4”?

Many of the tunnels were demolished but not all of them. They were a huge underground network like the London Underground. A lot are located in Gaza city which the IDF had not demolished and won’t as long as the ceasefire holds.

that sounds very supportive of terrorists. Surely not

Oh come on, there's plenty of hamas sympathisers!

Maybe because of the intense pressure that was on them from all sides.

Ah OK, so we know some tunnels were demolished, but it's not believable that some of those contained the bodies?

Israel rounds up large numbers of people and holds them without trial, for times like this. They call it administrative detention. There is no trial, much less a conviction. People have been held for over a decade. Even children are held.

Their conditions are terrible, they get no proper medical attention, are routinely subject to sleep deprivation, beatings and sundry humiliations.

The Guardian interviewed one man who went in at 93 Kg and is now 60 Kg. This is deliberate starvation, without excuse.

All Palestinian women in Israeli captivity are raped. They are unable to tell their families, for fear of "honour" killing. Such women who have manged to come to the West have spoken about it, in interviews.

The whole, Hamas bad, Israel good shtick is baloney. Each are as evil as the other.

Yes that’s believable that some contained the bodies, I never said otherwise.

But so far only 7 bodies have been recovered. Out of 28!

Those bodies were happily living in Israel until Oct 7th - they didn't need storing in underground tunnels, or buildings or anywhere. They were living people and Hamas took them.

You’re making wild claims there you cannot possibly know if true or not like All Palestinian women in Israeli captivity are raped.

I won’t bother replying to people who make unsubstantiated claims.

Hamas are showing the world exactly who they are: murderous terrorist scum.

They don’t want peace. They want to annihilate Israel because they want to kill all the Jews.

Because it means they got all their prisoners out.

If you blindly trust Hamas' casualty figures but then think they don't know where the majority of the murdered hostages are, you're very much a part of the problem.

Hamas have had one of the dead hostages for 11 years. They definitely know where he is - why hasn't he been returned? It's because they don't want to. They are engaging in psychological torture and warfare.

Hamas have proven time and time again that they are way more organised than anyone ever thought they were, so stop pretending they're not.

Palestinian hostages?

you mean the prisoners? All innocent of course

But there have been interviews? Why are we believing Israelis and not Palestinans.

I don't know why people just will not admit that both sides are wrong. Look at the claims about what Russian soldiers have done - women/children have been abused in most if not all wars.