Are Hamas as thick as they are evil?!

[Newbutoldfather]

After seeing masked, uniformed well-fed Hamas soldiers humiliating emaciated hostages, does anyone even feel a shred of sympathy for them?

Can’t they even understand how bad this looks and what the consequences will be both for themselves and, more importantly, for the rest of the Palestinians?

It would be hard for them to be as thick as they are evil, because they are extremely evil, but I think they might have achieved it…

When you say this, you are pretending that conflict has not been continued, well, continuously, from Hamas and its predecessors. You are talking as if peace was achieved on the Palestinian side but then mean old Israel kept being nasty.

This is not what has happened. Hamas started firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Israel withdrew from Gaza. They did not use the withdrawal, to proceed to peaceful co-existence. Yes, there is going to be high security from Israel from a very real continuous threat. How could you expect otherwise?

💯

I'm not really sure what you're expecting from Hamas here. It's a terror group made up largely of very young men with, at best, very insular education.

Hamas state very clearly that they hate all Jews, and want to eradicate them from the area. They're not going "off brand" or slipping up somehow by publicly showing how badly they've treated these hostages. They violently murdered these men's families. This shouldn't be new information to anyone.

That still doesn't make them hostages.

This.
It's all about hating Jews because they are Jews.

Hamas will attack whether Israel respond to hamas or not. They took 2 years planning the huge terrorist attack on oct 7th.

Israel not responding will not stop Hamas. Israel responding and killing some Hamas terrorists (there were around 30,000 of them in their number around the time of 0ct 7th) including high level leaders such as Sinwar, might slow their pace a bit.

However, it's clear hamas have done a great PR job on westerners. Imagine such clear support for people who launch the Manchester arena attack or for the terrorists behind July bombings in London several years back. How things change.

Hereagaintoday

Hamas do not want peace. They want the complete removal of Jews and the destruction of Israel.

I think it’s fair to say that the illegal West Bank settlers and certain members of the Israel Government feel the same way about Palestinians.

What are they then?

Neither “political” side comes out of this smelling of roses.

They don't care

The hamas wives are seen laughing in videos of how they are proud to bring up their DC as Hamas

It's a vicious cycle

Murderers.
Terrorists.
Suspects.
Prisoners of war.
Illegally detained people.

Not hostages.

This.

Prisoners. They are kept in prison awaiting trial.

GouacheEnthusiast

Israel denying chemotherapy??? Are you having a laugh? Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar developed a brain tumour whilst in Eshel Prison in Israel for terrorist activity in 2008. An Israeli surgeon operated on him and saved his life. Three years later he was released along with more than a thousand in exchange for hostage Gilad Shalit.

The man who orchestrated Oct. 7 owed his life and his freedom to the people he dreamed of destroying.

I'm citing this one example as he was the Hamas leader, but Israel routinely treated Palestinians in their hospitals and as a previous poster pointed out, some of the women kidnapped from the kibbutz on the 7th used to ferry Gazans into Israel to be treated.

Yes. Sure they are.

A response worthy of a belligerent teenager.

Your own link shows 52 civilians killed by ANC/MK in South Africa. The ANC focussed on sabotage and attacking unoccupied buildings not attacks on people and the later bombings were a change in strategy. I'm not condoning it. The IRA was responsible for 500-700 civilian deaths. Hamas killed over 1000 Israeli civilians in one day. Hamas is a terrorist organisation of an entirely different magnitude.

I don't think either side is looking too great right now. Hamas are looking both evil and stupid as are the government of Israel. An 8 month old pregnant Palestinian woman has just been shot dead by the IDF but you won't see that on the news and you won't see outrage for it either.

An appropriate response to the blatantly dishonest idea that they are prisoners awaiting trial

Dairydebri

"And there we have it. In a nutshell.

That's why. That's why the posturing.

Unbelievable you think Hamas are fighting for their country. They've destroyed their country. They've martyred their children.

They are not fighting for their country. They're fighting cos they hate Jews. And you still can't see it. Even after all this."

Of course she can see it. Unless her bandana is obstructing her view. "She" may even be a man. Who knows. But she/he needs to be taken off Mumsnet as has already been stated, it is illegal in the UK to support a terrorist organisation online.

Some are detainees awaiting trial and some are convicted of various crimes including some serving sentences for murder and terrorism. None of them have the legal definition of hostages as noted by many countries around the world.

The people taken during the October 7th terrorism attack at the festival and kibbutz are all defined legally as hostages around the world, hence how it's reported by news outlets around the world. Its quite easy to understand really.

Hamas are just a product of their experience over the last 75 years of conflict in much the same way as Irgun, Haganah and others were a product of theirs.

And what do you call them when they're found not guilty of anything?

Quite a few posts expressing support for Hamas have been removed. If you'd have asked me if there would be support for Hamas on here before this weekend I would have said No, absolutely not, it's not possible. It's mindblowing.