Families of hostages storm Knesset meeting after Netanyahu rejects Hamas offer
Family members of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip have stormed a parliamentary meeting in Jerusalem to demand that Israel’s government does more to return their loved ones, as fighting in Khan Younis reached unprecedented levels.
About 20 relatives of people seized as captives by the Palestinian militant group in the 7 October attack disrupted a Knesset finance committee meeting on Monday, chanting: “Release them now, now, now!”
One woman, who has three family members taken by Hamas, cried: “Just one I’d like to get back alive, one out of three.” Other protesters held up signs reading: “You will not sit here while they die there.”
On Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected new Hamas conditions for ending the war and releasing the hostages including the Islamist group retaining control of Gaza and Israel withdrawing completely. In response, a Hamas official in Qatar said Netanyahu’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza meant there was “no chance for the return of the captives”.
Honestly, the one thing that really surprises me about this war is how little the Israeli government cares about the hostages.
They really do value land more than human lives.
And the absolute cold blooded attitude they have towards innocent Palestinians is horrifying.
Regardless of what the ICJ decides, for me people who support Hamas, ISIS, Russia, deny the Holocaust, neo-nazis or those who support the state of Israel are all immoral persons.
And it is difficult to accept that most people are actually quite comfortable with evil. It seems to be that people are just tribal in which evil they support and which evil they object to.
Sadly, I think the Israeli government might be aware that there are fewer live hostages to come home than people think after the IDF gave the Hannibal directive on October 7th.
The possibility of "friendly fire" has been discussed more widely in Israeli news than US/Western news. For example, here's an opinion piece in Israeli's current oldest paper (refresh the page, which doesn't seem to load properly the first time):
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel-used-a-procedure-against-its-citizens-we-need-to-talk-about-it-now/0000018c-6383-de43-affd-f783212e0000
Ok, wow.... I didn't know that even existed.
Today I learned.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive
Not just that. Freed hostages have confirmed that the IDF heli fired at them
https://www.businessinsider.com/freed-israeli-captives-hamas-terrified-idf-airstrikes-would-kill-them-2023-12?international=true&r=US&IR=T
"The reality is that I was in a hideout that was bombed, and we became wounded refugees. This doesn't even include the helicopter that fired at us on our way to Gaza," she said."
People were definitely killed by Hamas but it's starting to look like the amount of IDF friendly fire on oct7 wasn't insignificant
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-hq-ordered-troops-shoot-israeli-captives-7-october
The second part is a detailed, lucid, hour-by-hour description of the Israeli military's surprise and response to the Hamas invasion, published in an Israeli paper and heavily supported by quotes from Israeli military personnel. Much more information and skepticism about Netanyahu's response to the Hamas invasion on Oct 7th has been published in Israeli media than mainstream Western media
Damn that article is pretty brutal.
I wonder what the actual count of killed by Hamas vs IDF is. At first I thought the IDF just shot a few civilians but it's looking like they did some serious numbers.
Israeli gov doesn't care about the hostages and Hamas doesn't care about the Palestinian people. It's very bleak.
On the contrary, the hostage situation shouldn't be surprising. It's been going according with the current trajectory of things.
There were 10 times as many Israelis killed in Hamas' attack in a single day that there are hostages left. They've also said they will keep performing such attacks for as long as they can.
Sad as it is for the individuals, I think Israel considers them lost and the last thing they want to do is prove Hamas right for what they did
Apparently for you the evil of the USA is something you're quite comfortable with if it's not on the list
Edit: apparently it's ok to critic everyone else but not ourselves. Getting some proud american downvotes
I'm not an American.
Gonna downvote you for making assumptions.
And no, I am also quite critical of the evil of my own country, but I probably have huge blind spots as well.
Hi American here!
We have done a ton of fucked up shit, please learn from our mistakes instead of copying them.