Here we go.
It’s not about the hostages- Israel doesn’t really want them back. Netanyahu doesn’t give a shit about the hostages.
November 2023 Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and released over 100 hostages and were planning to release more but then Israel broke the ceasefire bombing again.
February of 2024, where Hamas agreed to release the hostages in phases but then Israel rejected this because they then called for a permanent ceasefire.
Then on April 2024, Hamas agreed to another deal that was just like Israel’s but Israel rejected and US officials even reported that they were intentionally stalling.
Israel finally accepted a deal in January 2025 which did call of all the hostages but then Israel launched surprise attacks and broke their own deal.
So it looks like to me, that even though Israel says it’s about the hostages thats not what this is about. To justify genocide and stay in power. Even the families themselves say that Israel is just using the hostages as a political tool to extend the war. Whether or not that means the rest of the hostages die.
As long as the hostages exist inside Gaza, Israel can justify even more violence and destruxtion. They’re actually incentivised not to bring their hostages back because then Netanyahu would lose power. Release the hostages is not a good faith argument, it’s a classic Israeli talking point to shift the blame to Palestinians and ignore the fact that Israel has had plenty of chances to get their hostages back without committing genocide.