LOS ANGELES.–Serving notice to Hamas that Israel would annex more land in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages Israel would take more territory in the Gaza Strip. Since the war began Oct. 7, 2023 following the massacre of some 1,200 Israelis, taking another 250 hostage, Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza claims Israel has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Hamas always paints Israel in the most vile light, claiming that it’s military campaign has been about starvation and genocide, not seeking to get back what’s left of the remaining hostages. Israel’ Shin Bet security services says on 24 hostages, out of 70 in Hamas custody, remain alive, with those numbers falling by the day. Israel ended its ceasefire agreement with Hamas, claiming Hamas had breached the agreement.
Hamas has doled out Israeli hostages knowing it’s the only leverage the terror group has left as it tries to hang on to power in the Gaza Strip. Only recently, has the West Bank Palestine Authority under direction of 89-year-old Mahmoud Abbas said that Hamas must leave Gaza before the war ends up exterminating what’s left of the Palestinian people. “If Hams continues with its intransigence, it will pay heavy prices that goes higher and higher in the taking of territory (by Israel) and in taking out militants and terror infrastructure until its complete surrender,” Katz said in a video released to the media. Under 78-year-old President Donald Trump, Israel has all the backing to do anything it wants with Hamas. Trump has taken away any restrictions left over from the Biden administration. Netanyahu hoped the latest offensive in Gaza would force Hamas to turn over the remaining hostages.
Hamas refuses to turn over the hostages, something that’s become their own remaining leverage left in the Gaza War. West Bank Palestine Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, 89, called for Hamas to leave Gaza, return the territory back to the Fatah movement. So far, Hamas has refused to get out of Gaza, saying they won’t leave until Israel withdraws its forces from the Gaza Strip. Israel has the green light from Trump to do whatever it wants with Hamas to secure the return of their hostages, including annexing more Gaza territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown more impatient with Hamas, knowing they hang on to living or dead Israeli hostages. More forceful voices from the European Union need to tell Hamas they must release the remaining hostages and get out of Gaza. So far, Egyptian and Qatar mediators have not insisted that Hamas get out of Gaza.
Hamas still thinks it can win the propaganda war with Israel, accusing Israel of genocide and mass starvation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas takes no responsibility for starting a war with Israel Oct. 7, 2023, creating the worst humanitarian crisis since WW II. Gaza’s 2.1 million population are viewed as martyrs of the resistance, the cause of destroying the Jewish State. So, whatever hardship Palestinians suffer at the hands of Hamas’s war with Israel, it gaslights the international community. Hamas has its backers in the U.N. that allows it spread its war propaganda against Israel. Hamas thinks the more the war goes, the more sympathy it gets from the world community. Watching pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in the U.S. and elsewhere attest to the cleverness of Hamas’s propaganda machine, adept at demonizing Israel to the global community.
Hamas militants continue to hide out in Gaza’s elaborate tunnel system, more complex and sophisticated that anything built on the surface of Gaza over the last 20 years. Hamas has gone to war with Israel several times in its 18-year history in Gaza. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in 2007, allowing its leaders to fleece the territory of donor cash at the expense of Gaza citizens. Gaza citizens are told daily by Hamas leaders that they’re close to conquering Israel and returning the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere back to Israel. When the late Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he told Gaza residents they were going to get back their land. Two years later, the Gaza Strip is in ruins, completely decimated, with its 2.1 million living in tents and makeshift shelters like homeless encampments.
Egypt and Qatar mediators and EU officials must demand that Hamas return what’s left of the Israeli hostages and leave Gaza for good. While nearly two years late, it’s time for all parties to join the Palestine Authority and demand that Hamas get out of Gaza. Hamas doesn’t heed Trump’s warnings that it would have “hell to pay” if it doesn’t release the remaining hostages and leave Gaza. Hamas insists that the Gaza War must end before it agrees to leave the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has ended the shaky ceasefire and resumed the war, promising to annex more of the Gaza Strip. Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 only to watch it taken over by Hamas in 2007, creating the current mess that claims more Palestinian lives by the day. Only with Egypt, Qatar and the EU demanding the Hamas leave Gaza will the terror group finally accept an exile deal to some rogue state like Iran.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
