What are they even hoping to get out of keeping the hostages anymore? At this point it looks like Israel is quietly trying to move to acting as though they're already dead anyways.
The hostages are something of value to someone, even if that value is almost nothing to the major players.
And it isn't like Israel is quietly trying to act as if there aren't hostages any more, they've been acting like it since near the beginning of this war, which I feel caught Hamas by surprise.
What are they even hoping to get out of keeping the hostages anymore?
They won't get anything from handing them over, so when everything is over it might get Gaza a few more kilometers of land.
They won't get anything from handing them over
I guess Allah doesn't reward people just for doing the right thing then?
Throwing away all your leverage in war isn't "the right thing".
Holding civilians hostage for 3 months isn't "war", it's an act of terrorism and a war crime.
Edit: I see I struck a nerve with that one.
It is since Israel made hostages one of the few ways Palestinians can actually do anything to improve their lives.
hostages one of the few ways Palestinians can actually do anything to improve their lives
Genuine question, how has Hamas taking hundreds of innocent people hostage on October 7th improved the situation in Gaza or Israel in any way? Whose life is better today than it was a couple of months ago as a result?
International humanitarian law prohibits taking and executing hostages. Such acts are considered war crimes (GCI–IV Common Art. 3; GCIV Arts. 34, 147; API Art. 75) and can be tried before any national court, under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
The Convention defines a hostage taker as “any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure or to continue to detain another person (‘hostage’) in order to compel a third party, namely a State, an international inter-governmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or to abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage, commits the offence of taking hostages (‘hostage taking’)” (Art. 1 of Hostage Convention).
The Convention further specifies that not only those who commit such an act but also any person who attempts to commit or who participates as an accomplice in such an act or attempt is accountable and must be punished.
At any rate, regardless of whether you feel Hamas' jihad is justified or not (it isn't, in fact), hostage taking is an international war crime. The Geneva Convention is the bare minimum standard on this, and as such our opinions and political leanings are irrelevant.
The bare minimum Hamas can do now is to release the remaining hostages and surrender themselves to the IDF to stand trial, so that the innocent people of Gaza can start slowly putting their lives back together.
Genuine question, how has Hamas taking hundreds of innocent people hostage on October 7th improved the situation in Gaza or Israel in any way? Whose life is better today than it was a couple of months ago as a result?
Nobody's but when the war ends the number of hostages Hamas has will be an important factor in just how fucked Gaza will be.
The bare minimum Hamas can do now is to release the remaining hostages and surrender themselves to the IDF to stand trial, so that the innocent people of Gaza can start slowly putting their lives back together.
Yep, just showed your true colors. In that case Israel should also be surrendering its leadership and soldiers to stand trial in the Hague for genocide (or at the very least collective punishment).
Israel (specifically Netanyahu) has repeatedly stated they want security control of Palestine "from the river to the sea". Nothing good is gonna come out of the Gazan resistance surrendering.
Nobody's but when the war ends the number of hostages Hamas has will be an important factor in just how fucked Gaza will be.
How so, and what's the endgame here? Keep as many innocent civilians hostage in perpetuity?
Here you are admitting that Hamas' actions have benefited literally "nobody" thus far, and at the same time you're suggesting that they keep doing what they're currently doing (something which, as we've already established, is a war crime) because it will "be an important factor" in the future, in some very abstract and vague way?
As the saying goes "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results."
Yep, just showed your true colors.
Not sure what this ad hominem is supposed to suggest, but it's weak either way. 🤷
In that case Israel should also be surrendering its leadership and soldiers to stand trial in the Hague for genocide (or at the very least collective punishment).
I agree that Israel's actions over the last few months should be put under just as much scrutiny as Hamas', and in fact, they are. https://apnews.com/article/genocide-israel-palestinians-gaza-court-fbd7fe4af10b542a1a4e2c7563029bfb
No Western country has declared support for South Africa’s allegations against Israel. The U.S., a close Israel ally, has rejected them as unfounded, the U.K. has called them unjustified, and Germany said it “explicitly rejects” them.
China and Russia have said little about one of the most momentous cases to come before an international court. The European Union also hasn’t commented.
So far there doesn't seem to be much of a argument that anything that Israel has done up until now rises to the level of a war crime, while as I shared above, the Geneva Convention is explicit that terrorist hostage-taking of innocent civilians is, on its face, a war crime. If Israel is proven to have done things that are so blatantly war crimes, they should be held accountable for those things. It's the only reasonable position to take, frankly.
As always, if you find yourself arguing against the Geneva Convention you might want to reexamine the ethics and soundness of your position.
Israel (specifically Netanyahu) has repeatedly stated they want security control of Palestine "from the river to the sea".
Hamas have also repeatedly stated, including in their 1988 founding charter, that the goal of their jihad is the complete destruction of Israel and genocide of Jewish people in the Levant.
Neither Netenyahu nor Hamas believe in a peaceful two-state solution in which Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs can live together peacefully. If I had my way they'd both be totally stripped of power.
if your leverage is holding innocent people captive, maybe you aren't the good guys?
World peace
Breaking, Hamas leaders announce cover of "we are the world"
Israel can't stop till the hostages are back and hamas wants as many Palestinians dead as possible for propaganda. They'll never return them willingly.
I would be surprised if hostages turn up in Egypt and Iran too to try to expand the war.
Wow, a comment telling that it's hamas and not Israel who wants Palestinians dead is not downvoted.
A rare moment of collective sanity in this place. Don't get used to it.
Also explains why Israel doesn’t want the hostages back.
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/