The world recoiled in horror on Saturday when newly released hostages emerged from Hamas captivity in a state that can only be described as “Holocaust-esque.” Emaciated, hollow-eyed, some barely able to walk—these were not prisoners of war, but civilians, including elderly women and young men, subjected to months of torment.
If Hamas was trying to prove it is a legitimate actor, it failed spectacularly. And yet, with the world still processing those haunting images, the terror group has now decided to halt hostage releases indefinitely.
Hamas announced on its Telegram account on Monday that it is canceling the release of hostages on February 15 “until further notice,” claiming that Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement by “delaying the return of displaced people to the northern Gaza Strip” and “not allowing relief supplies of all kinds to enter as agreed upon.”
The move has been met with swift criticism from Israeli officials, with Defense Minister Israel Katz calling it a “complete violation” of the agreement and instructing the IDF to be at the “highest level of alertness for any possible scenario in Gaza.”
This is not a delay in logistics. This is not a bureaucratic snafu. This is psychological warfare at its most grotesque. Hamas is testing the limits of the world’s patience, playing a high-stakes game of manipulation in which Israeli hostages are bargaining chips to be traded or withheld at will. But what happens when those chips come in body bags? When Hamas finally decides that some hostages have outlived their usefulness and hands back coffins instead of captives?
When the hostages return
The group has prided itself on turning hostage releases into a media spectacle, complete with orchestrated crowds and celebratory fanfare. But will those same crowds gather when the bodies of hostages, starved or tortured to death, are returned? Will there be certificates of release for the lifeless remains of a Holocaust survivor who survived the Nazis only to perish in Gaza?
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued an urgent call for action following Hamas’s announcement, demanding “swift assistance in finding an immediate and effective solution to restore the implementation of the deal.”
The forum warned: “The hostages are out of time, and they all must be rescued from this nightmare urgently.”
Hamas’s latest move should serve as a wake-up call. If this is how it behaves when the world is watching—stalling, posturing, and feigning moral outrage at supposed Israeli violations—then what horrors remain unseen? The terrorists claim that Israel is not fulfilling its end of the agreement, but it’s Hamas that has already shattered every basic standard of decency by taking civilians hostage in the first place.
One Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that, in his view, Hamas did not attempt to sabotage the deal in its latest statement. Another dismissed the terror group’s claims as “fake,” suggesting that Hamas is attempting to reignite the conversation over a second phase of negotiations.
The images of the hostages this past weekend should have put an end to any illusions about their treatment in captivity. Now, the real question is this: When Hamas is done toying with its prisoners, when its propaganda machine can no longer extract value from them, will the world still watch in silence when the final “exchanges” are not hostages but corpses?
Jesus Christ is King
