MURDER MOST FOUL

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/murder-most-foul-many-of-the-hostages-have-been-murdered?

Murder Most Foul: Many of the Hostages Have Been Murdered
APR 12, 2024 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD37 COMMENTS
Hamas now says it cannot come up with even forty hostages, consisting of women, the elderly, and female soldiers, to be exchanged for what, at last count, was supposed to be 700 Palestinian prisoners, some of them now serving multiple life sentences for murdering Israelis. What does that mean? It means what everyone of sense has suspected all along. Hamas has been steadily murdering many, perhaps most, of the hostages. More on these murders most foul can be found here: “Report: US officials fear most of the hostages held by Hamas could be dead,” Times of Israel, April 11, 2024:

US officials tell the Wall Street Journal that there are fears that most of the Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity could be dead.

The report comes amid talks to secure a hostage release deal and a truce, with some Hamas sources indicating that they are unable to provide 40 living hostages from the elderly, women and female soldiers that Israel is demanding.

It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of those still held by Hamas, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

How many of the 34 hostages confirmed dead by the IDF were murdered by Hamas? No one in his right mind believes that all, or most, died in Israeli airstrikes. Hamas committed mass murder of innocent civilians on October 7. Why wouldn’t it continue to murder the hostages for any number of reasons? Some Hamas members may have found the elderly Israelis required too much attention. Why not just eliminate them if they proved too much trouble to take care of? Perhaps some of the girls and women were insufficiently accommodating to the sexual demands of their captors. So why not kill a few, to make sure the others are obedient? And then what fun, after all, to every so often kill a few of the male IDF soldiers. What’s not to like?

However, the WSJ report says that “Israeli and American officials estimate privately that the number of deaths could be much higher.”

Some US estimates indicate that most of the hostages are already dead, US officials familiar with the intelligence tell the paper.

They stress, however, that US information on the hostages is limited and depends, in part, on Israeli intelligence.

The report quotes US officials as saying that some were likely killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza, while others have died from health issues, including injuries suffered during their initial capture….

This sounds as if the American officials are ready to accept the Hamas excuses about hostages dying in Israeli strikes or from natural causes. There is no way to disprove the Hamas claims, but they should not be uncritically accepted. Skepticism is in order. Instead of reinforcing Hamas’ claims, by stating that “some of the hostages were likely killed during Israeli strikes” or from “health issues,” the Americans ought to be saying instead that “though a handful of the hostages may have been killed in airstrikes, we know that most of them are being held in underground tunnels where airstrikes do not reach. We believe that Hamas has been murdering some of the hostages for any number of reasons. Some are elderly and required care that Hamas operatives didn’t want to provide; some were girls and women who tried to resist sexual abuse by their captors; some were soldiers whom Hamas decided to execute in order to frighten the other hostages into subservience. We demand that Hamas provide a full accounting of all of the hostages, living and dead, in its possession, and in the case of the latter, the cause of death.”

Let’s do the math. There were 253 people taken hostage on October 7. Four were released by Hamas in October, and 105 of them were released in the November hostage-for-prisoner swap. That left 144 captives (253-109). Three more hostages were subsequently rescued by the IDF, and three others were mistakenly killed by the IDF. That means 138 were still being held captive. In addition, twelve bodies of hostages who had been held captive and presumably were killed by Hamas were recovered by the IDF. That means 126 captives should now be alive in Hamas’ captivity. But who knows how many of those have been killed over the last few months. The Israeli government now believes that Hamas is holding onto the bodies of 31 Israelis who have died in captivity. That would mean fewer than 100 captives are still alive and are being held. But do you really think their captors have ceased to murder their helpless hostages? It’s murder most foul, and the American government ought to be taking the lead in demanding an accounting from Hamas as to just how many captives are still being held, and what the terror group claims happened to those who are dead.

And how will people react when the final reckoning is made, and it is discovered that only a few dozen hostages are still alive in Hamas’ possession? Will there be a renewal of the sympathy and solidarity with Israel that was on display in the weeks after the October 7 atrocities? Or will these revelations have no effect, as so much of.the world has made up its mind in recent months to support even the terror group Hamas against the “apartheid, settler-colonial, genocidal, Jewish state”?