We Shouldn’t Be Surprised

When all the living hostages were returned I was surprised that they did it. Those hostages were the only leverage Hamas had so for them to return them all at one time it meant that they had nothing to deter Israel from annihilating them. I wondered what they were thinking and now we know. They would use the remaining bodies as their leverage and their reason to not agree to fulfill the rest of the 20-point plan. They have even resorted to subterfuge to feign compliance as we read in an article from The Epoch Times:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene senior security officials on Oct. 28 to discuss possible responses after Israel accused Hamas of violating the U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement by returning partial remains of a hostage, who, according to Israeli authorities, had already been buried two years earlier.

What was returned was the partial remains of a hostage already recovered by Israel earlier:

On Monday, Israel received, via the Red Cross, a coffin containing remains of a deceased hostage, later identified as Ofir Tzarfati. Tzarfati was abducted by Hamas at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and, according to the Israeli government, his remains were recovered from Gaza around two years ago, and his body had already been laid to rest in Israel.

The PMO stated that Netanyahu was not pleased:

In a Monday statement, Netanyahu’s office said the return of Tzarati’s partial remains “constitutes a clear violation of the agreement by the Hamas terrorist organization.” The statement added that the prime minister would hold “a security discussion with the heads of the security establishment to discuss Israel’s steps in response to the violations.”

Rather than being an honest mistake it was an intentional act of deceit caught on camera:

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said on Monday that Hamas had dug a hole in the ground, placed Tzarati’s partial remains inside, and covered them with dirt, before handing the remains over to the Red Cross.

“The IDF caught the entire sequence of events on a military drone. An act that is deliberate and is a disgraceful deception that is just one of many lies Hamas has been propagating since the beginning of the war,” she said.

They did this with the body of the mother of the slain Bibas children, Ariel. They tried it again when they returned the body of an enemy of Hamas. This time the family is justifiably angry:

Tzarfati’s family said they were devastated by what they called “an abhorrent manipulation designed to sabotage the deal and abandon the effort to bring all the hostages home.”

“This is the third time we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son,” the family said in a statement. “The circle supposedly ‘closed’ back in December 2023, but it never truly closes. Since then, we have lived with a wound that constantly reopens.”

Times Up

Hamas knows exactly what they’re doing here, make no mistake about it. They were supposed to return the bodies of these hostages in 72 hours of the agreement. They seem to want to take their time about it and see how long they can string this out to avoid disarming:

The dispute over the cease-fire’s implementation comes as the United States continues to monitor the truce between Israel and Hamas brokered on Oct. 10. Under the agreement, Hamas is required to return all remaining Israeli hostages before the next phase of the peace deal can proceed. There are still 13 bodies of hostages in Gaza.

The terrorists want us to think that it is harder than anyone thinks:

Hamas has said it is struggling to locate the remains amid widespread destruction in Gaza, while Israel has accused the group of deliberately delaying the process.

US President Trump gave Hamas 48 hours to return the remaining bodies and they are playing games with that deadline:

U.S. President Donald Trump warned last week that Hamas must return the bodies of deceased hostages “quickly” or face consequences from countries backing the peace deal.

“Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now, and for some reason they are not,” he said in a Truth Social post on Oct. 25.

“Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely.”

Here we are on October 28th and it hasn’t happened. Not only that, they staged a return of a hostage whose remains were already found. But it gets worse. Now, because the IDF has repeatedly responded to their constant attacks inside the yellow line, Hamas is saying they are done returning more bodies as seen in an article from World Israel News:

Hamas announced Tuesday that it would not return the body of a deceased Israeli hostage as planned, claiming Israel had violated the terms of the ceasefire. The terror group was supposed to have released the remains at 8pm Tuesday evening, but the transfer was stopped due to Israeli airstrikes launched in retaliation for a Hamas attack against IDF soldiers beyond the Yellow line in Gaza.

It doesn’t take a lot of brain cells to see what Hamas is doing here. And now the 48 hour deadline from Trump is up. The consequences he alluded to need to happen. And it sounds like Netanyahu is ready to make it happen.