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The bulk of today’s Action Update will focus on the state of the hostages and related events in Gaza. But before we dive in, we note that on Monday, two Palestinian terrorists fired makeshift sub-machine guns at Israelis at a major intersection near Jerusalem – the Ramon Junction. Six people were killed, 10 were injured. An off-duty soldier in the IDF’s Hasmonean Brigade, as well as several armed civilians, killed the terrorists. One of their accomplices was later arrested.
In addition to the Palestinian terror attack, the Houthis have continued their intermittent aerial attacks on the Jewish state, and over the weekend, a Houthi drone managed to evade the IDF’s air defenses and slam into an airport in southern Israel – wounding one individual. Since then, all incoming Houthi projectiles have been felled.
As all this has been taking place, the war in Gaza continues.
Emaciated… Blinded… Hardly Recognizable…
Over the past few weeks, Hamas has taken intermittently to releasing videos of certain hostages. While seeing a hostage alive – knowing that he has not been killed – brings happiness, this is immediately vanquished as the faces of the surviving hostages tell the story of the unspeakable horrors they’ve endured.
On Friday, the 700th day of the war, Hamas released a propaganda video which showed hostages Alon Ohel and Guy Gilboar-Dalal. This is the first sign of life Ohel’s family has received since he was abducted during the 10/7 Massacre.
Mr. Ohel’s family spoke plainly regarding their loved ones’ situation, and that of all the hostages, “No international law permits holding an injured civilian captive without proper medical treatment. The responsibility for Alon’s well-being lies with his captors and Hamas leadership, who are obligated to preserve his life and health according to international law.”
Hamas has released a number of shocking videos showing the abhorrent conditions in which these innocent people are being kept. In August, for example, the sadistic terrorist group released a video of an emaciated 24-year-old Evyatar David, who is seen forced into digging what purports to be his own grave.
There is no depth to Hamas’s depravity. We knew this on October 6th; we horrifically and tragically witnessed their horrors on October 7th, and every day since, innocent people have been forced to endure that depravity.
This Must Come to an End
Hamas seems to desire a perpetual state of war with Israel. Sure, the foreign policy elites will argue otherwise, but all of those arguments boil down to this strange belief amongst some that Hamas should exist at the end of the war. Spoiler Alert: they won’t.
Israel has begun its operation in Gaza City, but if we’re honest, by the time were to have known to have begun, Israel had already captured 40% of the city. Hamas infrastructure is being destroyed daily. But even after Israel conquers the city, if the hostages are not released, there will be more.
Much of Hamas’s leadership doesn’t live in Gaza. After all, they’re rich terrorist leaders. They prefer the Ritz-Carlton in Doha, or the high-end hotels of Istanbul and Ankara. But here’s the thing, one day that room service they ordered may come with a (suppressed) bang. Simply put, the day Israel does not believe the Hamas leadership “abroad” (read, outside of Gaza) will allow the hostages to be set free is the day they cease having a purpose on this earth.
So, it’s simple, Hamas is being dismantled – that’s happening. After all, one wouldn’t let an individual rapist and murderer go free because he held a hostage; likewise, certainly a government could never let an entire organization of rapists and murderers just go right back to their barbarism.
Last Warning
People have strong feelings about President Trump, as they often do about elected officials. But regardless of one’s politics or even their approach to the world, one would be hard-pressed to argue that President Trump is afraid of defying precedent.
As such, Hamas would do well to truly hear the President’s warning from this past Sunday,
“Everyone wants the hostages HOME. Everyone wants this war to end!” Trump wrote. “It is time for Hamas to accept [my terms] as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning. There will not be another one.”
Neither President Trump nor Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu nor the people of the United States and Israel want this war to continue. Only Hamas and its supporters want to drag out the misery for as long as possible in the hopes that in the end (despite thousands of years of evidence indicating such will not happen) Israel will cease to exist.
Hamas’s fundamental problem mirrors that of morally fickle European leaders: they don’t seem to understand that Israel has won. And we’re not just talking about the military successes of the current war. Israel has won every war; Israel has defeated every Arabian and/or Islamic effort to destroy her - whether by actual countries like Egypt or pretend ones like Palestine.
This war will end as have all the wars of the modern Jewish commonwealth’s existence. The sooner the Israel haters recognize that they’ve lost, the sooner Hamas’s aforementioned fat cat leaders abroad will direct their pawns in Gaza to release the hostages.
Sincerely,
The CUFI Action Fund Team |
