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”.
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.