GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 477

Still Playing Games

Hamas Mocks Releasing More Hostages

We’re certainly happy that four more hostages were released, but Hamas made a show of letting them go as if the young women were only on a vacation, parading them out on a stage with terrorists on either side of them. We read the basics on the release from a report from The Epoch Times:

Four Israeli women have returned home after 15 months in captivity as Israel and Hamas move forward with a fragile cease-fire deal.

Terrorist group Hamas released the four female soldiers on Jan. 25 in return for 200 Palestinian prisoners as part of the cease-fire arrangement.

Many news sites are labeling them as soldiers and they were, but they were the lowest level soldiers whose job was to observe the border between Gaza and Israel. They were captured after their warnings that Hamas was up to something. Regardless, they are home now and that’s a very good thing:

Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag, all now aged between 19 and 20, were stationed at an observation post on the edge of Gaza when thousands of Palestinians led by Hamas fighters burst through the border and began a rampage that killed roughly 1,200 people.

“We are overjoyed and moved to see Naama standing strong and returning to us,” Levy’s family said in a statement after they were reunited.

The four were serving as observers, non-combat service members tasked with surveilling suspicious activity at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, when their post was overrun and the rest of the soldiers there killed.

Two of the released hostages were very new to their job:

At least two of the women were freshly conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces at the time of the attack. Oct. 7, 2023, was Albag’s second day in service.

Albag’s relatives hailed her endurance having survived 477 days in harsh conditions:

“Liri demonstrated superhuman strength and survived hell, and we are so proud of her steadfast endurance under impossible conditions,” her family said in a statement.

Hamas spared the women because they knew that Israeli service members would exact a higher return in any hostage deal. The abductions were inhuman:

After the initial attack, which killed most of the people stationed at the observation post, the women were abducted and taken back to Gaza by Hamas, just four of about 250 hostages taken that day.

Body camera footage recovered from deceased Hamas fighters that day revealed videos of the women, some in pajamas and covered in blood, being forced into the back of a jeep by masked men.

The women appeared to be in good health but they will still be examined in an Israeli hospital. The return was seen all over Israel including on large screen in Tel Aviv.

Convicted Criminals Also Released

Always lost in these hostage releases is that dangerous criminals are let out of prison at the same time as we read in an article from The Jerusalem Post:

As part of the agreed hostage-prisoner exchange deal, Israel released 200 terrorist prisoners on Saturday, according to Arab media reports.

These were not minor criminals, but hardened killers who were set free:

This included more than half who were serving life sentences for terror attacks that killed dozens.

According to the reports, 114 prisoners were released from Ofer Prison and were transferred to Ramallah, 16 were taken to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, and 70 were deported to Egypt.

Of the 200, 70 were exported out of Israel although they will more than likely be plotting attacking Israel in one way or another since 80% of them do:

Egyptian media reported that the 70 prisoners will stay in Cairo for about a week and then will be transferred to other locations.

More information about these terrorists was revealed:

Among those released was 67-year-old Mohammed Al-Tous, the longest-serving Palestinian terrorist prisoner. Al-Tous has spent 39 years in Israeli prisons for the 1985 terror attack he committed.

Raed Al-Saadi, 57, was also released on Saturday during the prisoner release. Saadi was imprisoned in 1989 for carrying out attacks during the First Intifada, killing IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. According to Arab media, he was supposed to be released in 2014 as part of a prisoner swap deal.

Of those sent to Egypt were asset of terrorist brothers:

Some of the 70 deported terrorist prisoners were the Abu Hmeid brothers from Ramallah, Mohammed and Sharif, who were sentenced to life in prison. Nasser, their older brother, died in prison from cancer in late 2022, and his body is being held in Israel, according to Arab reports. He was a leader of the Fatah-affiliated armed terrorist group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

And yet another terrorist was congratulated by PLA head Abbas. His crime? Murdering a baby who was less than a year old:

Palestinian media is releasing a video of released Fatah terrorist prisoner, Yasser Abu Bakr, speaking with the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on the phone.

Abbas congratulated Abu Bakr on his release, after he was imprisoned for 115 years in an Israeli prison for murdering a 9-month-old baby girl and two other civilians.

We can only pray that these criminals won’t harm anyone else let alone more Jews now that they are free. Unfortunately, unless they find Jesus, they will more than likely remain the terrorists they are wherever they relocate to.

Playing Games

As I led with, Hamas is always changing the terms of the agreement. We learn in a report from The Times Of Israel that the terrorists are supposed to give Israel the status of the remaining hostages and so far, they haven’t:

As midnight approaches on the seventh day of the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, Israel has yet to receive information from the terror group on the remainder of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first stage, which was meant to be handed over by the end of today.

Seven hostages have been released so far as part of the deal, in exchange for around 300 Palestinian security prisoners.

By not complying they will broach the agreement, something I’ve always said they would do:

According to the terms of the agreement, the Palestinian terror group was meant to let Israel know by today which of the remaining 26 hostages on the list, all of whom fall into the so-called “humanitarian” category of women, children, elderly individuals, and the infirm, are alive.

Senior Israeli officials quoted by Hebrew media sites confirm that Jerusalem has not received the update, and that failure to provide it is a violation of the accord.

I’ve said that these terrorists are always going to cause more pain and suffering for the families by not letting them know if their loved ones are alive or not. They reneged on the last deal back in November of 2023 by playing these same games. This time, Israel is making them pay a price:

Earlier today, Israel said that it would hold off on allowing displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza after it said Hamas violated the terms of the ceasefire-hostage deal by not freeing female civilian captive Arbel Yehud.

Even releasing the four female military observers now violates the deal:

Hamas freed four female soldiers held hostage by Hamas for 477 days — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — despite the deal stipulating that all living civilian women be freed before the soldiers.

Some unconfirmed media reports have said Israel has insisted on first receiving the living among the 33, with bodies returned at the end.

And expect more shenanigans from Hamas. Based on these current violations, Israel can claim they aren’t serious about honoring the rest of it and ask the US to consider the deal broken. And we know what will happen to Hamas if that happens: say hello to your 72 virgins.