Hostages condition on release

[LetThereBeLove]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/08/israel-hamas-hostages-released-gaza-latest-news/

The images speak for themselves

There are rules of engagement in warfare that you would think democratic countries would follow. Are you really defending or even worst justifying the deaths of civilians who were too close to the border for the IDF's liking? In this case not even border but buffer zone that didn't even exist before. How could all civilians know not to go near there?

Everything Hamas has done has been with the single aim of increasing anti-semitism worldwide, in order to destroy Israel.

They're scared that they've overplayed their hand. That even the blindest of their Western apologists will see what they are.

And then the destruction they've caused to Gaza will have gained them nothing. And worse - to their evil minds - that if they lose control of Gaza, they personally lose everything.

Trump suggested something he wanted. He also wants to buy Canada and Greenland, in case you'd missed that.

But Hamas reduced Gaza's chance at being part of a 2SS down to a sliver on October 7th. Now by starving and torturing the hostages - releasing them looking like concentration camp victims - they have utterly destroyed any future Gaza had.

They may have only just realised that.

@statsfun I think he really does mean it. He's just said if Jordan and Egypt don't take in the Palestinians that he wants to forcibly remove, then he could 'conceivably' withhold US aid from both countries.

Trump sounds like a lunatic.

Hersh, Emily and Alon are all now known to have been severely injured on October 7. One is now free, one is dead and one is still chained up in a tunnel in Gaza. It is Alon's birthday today. His family would like him back.

Hamas could return all the hostages, living and dead, but for some reason, won't. Doing so would probably be in the long term best interest of Palestinians in Gaza. Instead they physically and psychologically torture the hostages, even after they are released. Poor, poor Eli Sharabi. what they have done to him is just unbelievable. Inhumane, barbaric; I can't find a word to do it justice.

Hamas brought this upon Gaza through their execution of October 7. Is it any surprise that Israel would guard the border as though she were at war?

Hamas broke the ceasefire last week by lying about Israel withholding aid. Was it so they could dress the stage, wash the cars and get ready for the show? Was it to push the boundary so Israel break it. Hamas must know how the hostages are looking; the optics are going to get worse and worse as each handover occurs.

I'm sure the buffer zone was heavily agreed upon by both sides before the ceasefire began. I'm sure the information would have been disseminated to the civilian population. Sadly, I understand why Israel being hyper vigilant. She is at war, and war is brutal.

Tonight on Channel 4 a Palestinian ambassador said the IDF have killed 100 in Gaza since the ceasefire and killed dozens in the West Bank.

This +971 article quotes IDF soldiers describing their attitude of shooting anyone any where near zones they had decided were kill zones which this buffer zone now is. www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-gaza-firing-regulations/

Today they said they shot people “approaching” the buffer zone. So effectively there must be another buffer zone outside the designated buffer zone.

I am assuming again it’s because in the second phase of the plan Israel would be accepting a permanent ceasefire and then Hamas would be releasing hostages.

And Netanyahu does not want to accept a permanent ceasefire. He always had bigger ideas about this. He never seemed to care about the hostages.

In wonder if Hamas have paused hostage release as they have become aware of the backlash, especially with the starved prisoners , one of whom had to face the reality of his murdered wife and child.

Possibly with the US taking over Gaza Hamas realise the remaining hostages may be some sort of sick bargaining chip to allow safe departure from Gaza?

Hamas have defeated themselves with their own evil.

This is my view on it too.

I believe they're scared because if the Gazans get forcibly moved out of Gaza then they will have lost everything, forever.

I’m actually bit shocked by how radicalised people are.

So not even in the buffer zone, simply just near it. I know there will still be people who will try and justify these murders.

Where do you mean? By whom?

A bit of grief and a bit of fully believing the “story” that Trump and Netanyahu are saying maybe.

Saying people should be shot on sight. Outrage over the conditions of the hostages with zero emphathy towards people, even children, who have been starved and denied medical treatment. blaming Hamas for the ethnic cleansing that will take place by Israel and the US.

they are very radical views.

they are very radical views And the views of Palestinian terrorists who want to wipe out the state of Israel are also radical, surely?

Yes they are very radical views too. I would view the Israeli government and Hamas on a fairly level moral field. The only difference is that the Israeli government holds much more military power.

How is it radical to suggest it's Hamas fault if Gazans get ethnically cleansed?
Would we be here if it hadn't been for October 7th and the ongoing horror show of a hostage situation?

@dairydebris

Honestly if you have to ask the question.
I guess I assumed most people are against ethnic cleansing. I didn’t realise that people are happy to support the erasure of a population when they can blame someone else.

I suspect you're probably right. The news of Shlomo Mansour's death at the hands of Hamas isn't good timing for them either. Because of his age, and also it might get interested observers googling the Farhud.

As a pp said, Hamas have overplayed their hand. From a purely tactical perspective, they'd been fairly sensible with the first few releases and the PR side reflected that. It becomes a much harder task when the hostages look like something out of Dachau.

Speculation, but I wonder as well if people are picking up that the most obviously emaciated is the most clearly Middle Eastern looking bloke (Sharabi is a Yemenite Jewish name). That doesn't help with the Hamas preferred colonial Europeans narrative either.

You didn't actually answer the question?

How are Hamas not responsible for the current situation Gazan civilians find themselves in? They are the government. They murderously suppress opposition. They planned and carried out the atrocities of 7 October. How are they not responsible?

Personally I'm 100% against forcible displacement but I do keep thinking if I was Palestinian and given the choice I'd leave in heartbeat. Your suggestion that people are happy to support the erasure of a population is pure strawman fuckwittery. No one has said that.

Personally I'm 100% against forcible displacement but I do keep thinking if I was Palestinian and given the choice I'd leave in heartbeat.

I expect lots would. Which is a prospect that will greatly worry Hamas, of course. They need as many Palestinian civilians as possible to use as human shields, thus it's inconvenient for them if those human shields start getting a choice in the matter.

Like you, I'm against forcible displacement. Trump is in cloud cuckoo land. But there's no denying it would be humane for those who want to leave to be allowed to. Though I don't think they'll be that fortunate, sadly.