Excerpt:

“First and foremost, we need to sort out the matter of the hostages, to swap them with the terrorists that are here [referring to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, not all of whom were involved in militant activities]; it’s just explosive material to hold them in prison. After that, we need to sit down and negotiate a peace agreement,” Pauker said. As he spoke, the sounds of explosions from Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza could be heard in the background.

“I have good friends from across the border [in Gaza], but I can’t meet them, and they can’t meet me. They used to come to my house. I spoke to them on Saturday. They are human beings. They have bad leaders, like us. We can throw away the leaders on both sides and make peace in a matter of minutes.”

    • livus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The hostages might be beside the point. This article from 2014 about a different IDF operation made an interesting point that the Israeli govt conducted a massive operation to “rescue” hostages when it turns out they actually knew all along that they were already dead.

      Via @gladflag

    • A1kmm@lemmy.amxl.com
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      1 year ago

      The hostages are likely with Hamas in the tunnels under Gaza. The bombings by the Israeli military under the orders of Netanyahu’s Likud are not likely to kill either Hamas or the hostages, but rather they kill civilians and destroy civilian property on the surface. They are deliberate massacres of ordinary Palestinian citizens.

      Likud (and its collaborators) and Hamas are the evil forces here - both sides are murdering many civilians for each Hamas / Likud / IDF death.

      • queermunist she/her
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        1 year ago

        From the released hostages we know they’re being kept in homes, actually. It’s why so many have already been killed by Israel.