Grim scenes in Gaza cast doubt on the ceasefire deal

Hamas fighters escort a Red Cross vehicle to collect Israeli hostages
Hamas fighters escort a Red Cross vehicle to collect Israeli hostages

It was well known that Hamas supporters – both in Gaza and their useful idiots in the West – would use the ceasefire with Israel to their own propaganda advantage.

But even tonight, during the hostage exchange and release, grim footage is being circulated purporting to show Hamas’s “strength” through cruelty.

Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher are the first of the hostages mercifully now safe in Israel. But as their unimaginably horrific 471-day ordeal was coming to an end, some Palestinians were openly waving Hamas flags, jeering and whistling aggressively during their return. Fighters carried rifles and declared “victory”.

Such scenes illustrate the harsh reality we already knew. Having spent 15 months hiding beneath hospitals, in underground tunnels dressed as civilians, at times dressed as women, Hamas fighters now emerge, safe in the knowledge that, whilst the IDF may have left the Strip, the terrorists have not.

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Critics of Israel’s just war routinely declared that a professional army cannot destroy an ideology and that to crush Hamas militarily would not bring an end to its spread. But look at the destruction of Isis, which was not achieved through a ceasefire. The eradication of al-Qaeda was not achieved by ceasefire.

Military destruction requires a 50 per cent casualty rate to have been inflicted on the enemy. This can broadly be applied to Hamas, who have seen half of their fighters killed or wounded. But they can rearm and regroup – an ambition that will be facilitated by this brazen, intimidating marching on the streets of Gaza.

Soon after the ceasefire was announced, eliciting immense relief that those held captive after October 7 would be returned to their families, doubts began to creep in over what it would mean for Israel. Up to 30 Palestinian prisoners will be released per Israeli hostage. Hamas has been handed a legitimacy they lacked before. Israel’s strategic aims have not been reached.

Genocidal ideologies must be crushed through isolation, containment, and attrition. As the hostages were handed by Hamas to the Red Cross, a crowd of several thousand reportedly surged forward to surround them. The fighters protecting the swarmed convoy had to force people back. It was the image that made painfully clear: Israel has not yet slain this monster.