In his nightly Ukraine post at Balloon Juice, Adam Silverman is also keeping up with the latest news about the Israel-Hamas War and the hostages being held in Gaza.
And the news is not good.
Written off? Under the terms of the truce, no Israeli men – of single or dual nationality – are to be released. Additionally, the only American-Israeli released today was Abigail Idan. The remaining eight, which is the current published estimate for American-Israelis being held, are still unaccounted for. I expect that Sinwar will claim that they cannot be located or will try to hold them as a final bargaining chip should all else fail. I do not expect they will be released.BREAKING: Hamas says in a statement that it is working on extending the pause in the fighting on Gaza by releasing more Israeli hostages
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) November 26, 2023Except we now know that Hamas DOES NOT have many more hostages to actually exchange! The Financial Times has the details:...Efforts to extend a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas depend on the militant group locating dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza by civilians and gangs, Qatar’s prime minister has said.But Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the Financial Times that more than 40 other women and children were being kept captive in Gaza who were not believed to be held by HamasHe said the truce could be extended if Hamas was able to use the pause in the conflict to locate those hostages.“We don’t yet have any clear information how many they can find because . . . one of the purposes [of the pause] is they [Hamas] will have time to search for the rest of the missing people.”...The estimates have been that there are between 70 and 100 Israeli women and children being held hostage in Gaza. If more than 40 of them are not in Hamas’s custody & Hamas doesn’t know where they are, then Hamas will run out of women and children hostages to exchange either tomorrow or Tuesday.What happens then? The Israelis are going to go in hard. They are going to throw everything at Hamas. They are going flatten anything standing, bounce the rubble. The preferred course of action is to get as many of the women and children out first. But if Hamas cannot release any more after Tuesday, because they do not have them, cannot find them, or cannot get them from PIJ or the Gazan criminal gangs that have them, then they, like the men being held hostage, will be written off.[Emphasis mine]
OMG, this is what I have been afraid of for the last seven weeks - that the remaining hostages, close to 200 of them - will never be released.
4 comments:
Unless those who have been released can provide information regarding the rest of the hostages, I'd suspect the rest of the hostages are dead or in such a condition they can not be returned. We know what happened to the young people at the music festival and those who lived in the Kibutzes, why would they treat the captured any differently. If the hostages are with gangs, then how did they get there. Hamas had them. Why would Hamas give the hostages to gangs? To sell them?
I am surprised Hamas kept some hostages alive. the 200 hostages, if they are alive, aren't going to be alive for long. To hold them, guard them, feed them, etc. takes resources Hamas doesn't want to expend. As it is, they can kill them all andn then keep Israel dangling for years saying they're still alive.
when Hamas has the hostages back, that they want, expect that to be the end of hostage exchanges and the start of round two. Lets hope the Israel government and military aren't asleep at the switch this time
Bibbi is a very vengful person but not the smarted P.M. Israel has had. Its time for him and the "settlers" to take a hike. Gaza needs to be free of Hamas, the Hamas leaders with billions in the bank need to return the money to the people of Gaza and then Gaza needs to be rebuilt. It has the potential to be a vibrant and sucessful community. In the West bank, the settlers need to leave and the Palestinians be given their land back.
As it is the war can easily expand and then there is the no small matter of pro Israel and pro Palestinians becoming more violent im their protests, which could cause major civil unrest in some countries.
I am getting too many "ChatGPT" comments lately, and I see them on other blogs too -- they're sort of bizarre, aren't they.
I delete them whenever I see them.
Thanks e.a.f. - yes, I am afraid that most of the hostages are already dead. I read a chilling statement recently that said Israel is likely going to have to "write off" the other hostages because Hamas can't find them. They are martyrs for Israel.
Given the early reports of what had happened to the young people at the music festival, none of this was a surprise. Israel has had to make difficult decisions before. You'd thik Hamas would learn something along the way. However, Hamas leadership is making a shit load of money off of their occupation of Gaza and it is doubtful they will want to give up all that money.
Bibbi needs to get over himself and his need to control the Israeli Supreme Court and get with the busimess of protecting the country. Its not all about him. His quest for power needs to be put on the back burner. Aligning with the zealots is not doing anyone any good.
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