Four Israeli hostages were rescued from Hamas captivity. It was a daring raid into the middle of an area under Hamas control. The prisoners were being held in 3 civilian homes. One contained 3 men, the other a 25. One contained 3 men, the other a 25 year old woman. All were brought home alive.
The media coverage, however, seemed to ignore the fact that they were victims of an illegal kidnapping by a known terrorist organization. The Hamas Gaza Ministry of Health reported over 200 “civilian” dead. The number keeps climbing with each new report because Hamas has found that dead civilians is a subject that gets them positive press and results in the world disregarding the fact that the people rescued were the real victims. The family homes where the hostages had been held were run by families that received a stipend from Hamas for “hosting” the hostages. In my eyes that makes them accomplices to a violation of lots of laws. Hamas would like to have us believe they were “innocent” civilians. They were not members of the Hamas military wing, just families that were being paid to serve as jailers. Their homes were picked to provide a cover story for terrorist activity just like Hamas selects schools and hospitals for use as launch sites for rockets (at least three were fired from Gaza just after the hostages were rescued) and weapons storage. The sad part of this is that the media parrots these Hamas lies as if there was some factual basis behind them. Having paid “civilian” jailers is really just proof that there are few residents in Gaza that are not affiliated with Hamas. Although I did hear of someone in that neighborhood addressing an armed Hamas terrorist, telling him “You brought this death and destruction down on us! You are responsible for this!”.
Countries (and organizations, like the UN) who would like the war to end need to shift their attention to Hamas, Hezbollah, and their sponsor, Iran. It should be obvious that Hamas is ready and willing to trade Palestinian lives for advancing a radical Islamic agenda. They don’t kill just Israelis and Jews. The victims of the October 2023 massacre included citizens of other countries and followers of other religions.
Wetherhorn 