Hamas Refuse to Release Hostages

Despite much optimism regarding hostage negotiations in the final weeks of 2024, when Hamas was said to have dropped some of its demands, the terrorists are now reported to have returned to insisting that Israel commits to a permanent end to the war.

While Israel holds firm on receiving live hostages first, Hamas refuses to release 12 of the 34 that Israel requires in the first phase. The terrorist group has offered to release 12 dead bodies instead – an offer clearly intended to be grossly offensive to the Israelis.

Hamas has even claimed it is unable to produce a list of the hostages it currently holds while fighting continues, saying it needs a ceasefire to do so.

This latest change in statements by Hamas seems to be yet another example of the psychological tactics the terrorists use against the Israelis – government, military and civilians. It comes against a background of claims that the terrorist group is renewing its strength in the Gaza Strip.

Indeed, there has been an increase in the intensity of the fighting recently, with a series of rocket attacks against Israel over the last week, including two rockets launched at the southern Israeli city of Netivot at the start of the new year. Thankfully, there were no casualties, as one rocket was intercepted and the other landed in an open area.

Recent Israeli operations against terrorists using hospitals have proved extremely controversial among the international community, despite the level of success the Israelis have claimed in killing and capturing many terrorists who are using the staff and patients as human shields.

Yet the Palestinian Authority has lent credence to Israel’s argument by publishing details of a Hamas summons for a Gazan individual to report to Nasser Hospital for interrogation by Hamas intelligence officials.

All of this has now led Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, to state that if Hamas does not release the 100 hostages and halt its rocket attacks on the Jewish state, Israel will deal it “blows with a force not seen in Gaza for a long time.”

This report by ILTV News: