Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected conditions presented by Hamas to end the war and release hostages that would include Israel’s complete withdrawal and leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.

As Israeli planes resumed bombing Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the Israeli leader’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza “means there is no chance for the return of the (Israeli) captives.”

“In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “And leaving Hamas intact.”

  • DdCno1
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    -1610 months ago

    For as much as he’s a bastard, Netanyahu is right this once. If Hamas were allowed to use hostages to buy their continued existence, then this would do nothing but to signal to them, once again, that taking hostages is an effective and worthwhile strategy, which alone is obviously not acceptable. They would do it again in the future, without a doubt. Any time the other side has shown anything what Hamas perceives as a weakness, like for example when the IAF didn’t bomb a target in the mid-2000s, because the terror org herded hundreds of civilians there, they immediately use this “winning strategy” again and again, even if they are hurting themselves with it.

    Hamas also cannot be allowed to continue their rule over Gaza after October 7. The islamofascist organization has to be destroyed just like Nazi Germany had to be destroyed in WW2, there is no other way of ending this war. Even a left-wing Israeli government would not stop until the organization is neutered to the point of not being a serious threat anymore.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness
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      10 months ago

      Hamas also cannot be allowed to continue their rule over Gaza after October 7. The islamofascist organization has to be destroyed just like Nazi Germany had to be destroyed in WW2, there is no other way of ending this war.

      Maybe… stop occupying Palestine?

      • DdCno1
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        -1710 months ago

        To Hamas, this sentence means Israel and everyone living there should stop existing. What does it mean to you?

        • NoneOfUrBusiness
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          10 months ago

          It… Doesn’t? There’s a reason they updated their charter; no serious Palestinian organization is trying to erase Israel (edit: these days).

            • NoneOfUrBusiness
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              210 months ago

              I mean they’re currently at war. They’ve stated separately they’re going to be satisfied with a two-state solution, and made some steps towards that that obviously didn’t work.

              • DdCno1
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                210 months ago

                They were lying. It should be obvious to anyone that October 7 set back the two-state solution by many decades, if not forever.

                • NoneOfUrBusiness
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                  10 months ago

                  Set back what progress? You can’t say it was set back when there was 0 real progress and Netanyahu, who has been elected for 20 years on the promise that there won’t be a two-state solution is the PM.

                  • DdCno1
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                    210 months ago

                    Tens of thousands of Palestinians were working in Israel, earning several times their normal wage and feeding entire families in the West Bank and Gaza. Thousands were being treated in hospitals every year. There was a deal in the works for the exploitation of gas reserves off the coast of Gaza in the works that would have resulted in billions in income to Palestinians, as well as energy independence for Gaza. Negotiations were nearing completion when Hamas attacked on October 7.

                    There was actual progress being made, despite the constant friction due to settler violence and movement restrictions imposed upon on the people in the West Bank. None of the good things will ever happen again and it’ll only get worse for Palestinians from here on out. These kinds of deals result in contact, cooperation and intermingling, which is the basic groundwork necessary for Palestinians and Israelis to realize that peaceful coexistence is beneficial to both sides.

                    Terrorists exploited any ounce of goodwill. Those workers working in communities close to the border in Gaza? At least some of them spied on their hosts, reporting back even where children were sleeping, based on the maps and notes found on killed terrorists. Those communities who were hit the hardest were left-leaning, pro-peace and pro-Palestine, almost unanimously voting against the likes of Netanyahu while being active and enthusiastic supporters of the Palestinian cause, protesting against the two-tier justice system, against indefinite detention, against the harsh restrictions Palestinians in the West Bank suffer from. This kind of advocacy is as good as over.

                    Hamas knowingly hit those the hardest who are the best friends of Palestine in Israel, because they know that this keeps the violent conflict alive they so desperately wish to culminate in the destruction of Israel. Nobody in Israel will ever trust a Palestinian again to work for them, for many decades to come - and this lack of trust will make making any deals with Palestinians near impossible. Even before Israel has built its new border wall between its territory and Gaza, there are already invisible walls between the two people that are much higher than any physical wall could ever be.

            • @dwalin
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              510 months ago

              Plenty of neighburing counties had to learn how to live with each other. Thats no excuse for genocide or ethnic cleansing

            • @fastandcurious
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              10 months ago

              Palestine (and neighboring countries) hates Israel because they have been committing atrocities ever since the 1940’s

              Israel hates Palestine because it’s Palestine

                • @[email protected]
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                  -110 months ago

                  Israel was literally formed by terrorists. Their entire premise is evicting Palestinians from their homes to make room for foreign settlers. Those terrorists groups committed many terrorist attacks against the Palestinians and the British, before declaring a new state they now had to “defend” into Palestine.

    • @fastandcurious
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      510 months ago

      The fact is they can think about this situation after the hostage deal, Netanyahu funded Hamas, and is illegally keeping Palestinians in jails, the fact he doesn’t agree to a hostage swap deal males him even more of a bastard because he doesn’t care about his own people either, further fueling the ideology (of Hamas) that Israel should not exist, if they are not gonna agree to hostage swap deals, what do you think Hamas will do? Willingly surrender them? And what would Palestinians think, for such a tortured and terrorized population, you can bet they are gonna want to just kill Israel altogether, since they can’t come to any form of compromise with Israel

      What happened on Oct. 7 was definitely a freak accident, there is a very low chance that Hamas will be able to pull of this again (even though there are now some news sources that say it was actually the IDF, that killed the majority of the civilians)

      A hostage swap deal is definitely the smarter thing to accept, it would reduce tensions on both sides, at-least a litte bit, but Israel doesn’t want to stop it’s illegal torture and genocide of Palestinians, even if it means he has to pay his own population as the price

      • DdCno1
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        -710 months ago

        You need to get your news from different sources.

        No offense, but you really didn’t understand what I was saying at all. Agreeing to this preposterous proposal from Hamas would achieve absolutely nothing beneficial to the Israeli nor Palestinian people. There is no reducing tensions with a group that has repeatedly vowed to wipe out Israel and every Jew in the world while at the same time stating that they wish for more Palestinians civilians, men, women and children, to spill their blood for the cause.

        Here’s the best thing that could happen: Hamas gets defeated, the war ends and with it most of the dying, both from death and the terrible conditions in a war zone, and Israel elects a new, more moderate government that proves to be a more merciful victor. This is very likely, given how unpopular Netanyahu is. Everyone considers him a dead man walking politically. Even in the best of cases, Palestinian statehood is off the table for many decades to come however, as are any Israeli concessions or reforms to their justice system. Do you really think they’ll give up on any security measures, no matter how cruel they are, like for example indefinite detention now or at any point in the future? How would you sell this to voters? Every single democracy that has experienced a terrorist attack goes through a period of crackdowns and more restrictive laws. It was the same in the US after 9/11, it was the same in the UK during the Troubles and after the 7/7 central London bombings, it was the same in France after Charlie Hebdo, etc. pp.

        If there’s one thing Hamas have achieved, it’s bring the very people who were their most important allies, those left-leaning pacifist Israelis that live in the communities close to the border with Gaza - those most affected by the massacres - and were an important counterweight to the likes of Likud, up against them. I don’t think you are even aware of the fact that they murdered and abducted key pro-Palestinian Israelis and with that act, they permanently shifted the entire Israeli public much further to the right. An Israel that is mourning the dead of the October 7 massacres, that has learned that any kind of appeasement will be interpreted as weakness and ruthlessly exploited, an Israel that is a victor over those who perpetrated the worst pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust will build higher walls than ever before, will dig deeper moats between themselves and Palestinians than ever before and it will be more defiant in that their cause is right than ever before.

        The fact that the October 7 massacres inspired waves of antisemitic violence across the globe only further confirms to the Jewish people just how important having a Jewish homeland is, the only place in the world where a Jew doesn’t have to think twice before wearing a kippah. If you have never experienced racist discrimination, then it is difficult to comprehend just how much this is worth alone.

        Does it justify excessive force, does it justify settlers, indefinite detention, restrictions to movement, a two-tier bureaucracy and a two-tier justice system? Of course not, but to paraphrase and twist on its head what that embarrassment of a UN General Secretary said, these things aren’t happening in a vacuum.

        • @fastandcurious
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          10 months ago

          I think it should be clear that I am in no way supporting Hamas, your argument is essentially saying ‘Hamas bad, you can’t come to compromise with them’, I am saying that Hamas are powerless next to Israel, what happened on Oct. 7 was just a freak accident, and the chance of it happening tends to zero, once deal with the people who are affected, and then deal with all the madlads

          Agreeing to this preposterous proposal from Hamas would achieve absolutely nothing beneficial to the Israeli nor Palestinian people

          I can’t fathom how ignorant this statement is, what is ‘preposterous’ about this? Israel has been illegally detaining Palestinians for 75 years, these are real people who had kids, husbands, wives, similarly Hamas detained some people and are asking for a deal where Hamas releases Israeli citizens and Israel releases Palestinians, this would be tremendously ‘beneficial’ for both sides, people can reunite with their loved ones, and escape the torture inflicted upon them by Israel (and probably Hamas as well) (Taking hostages is not good, I should clarify this, but not agreeing to a swap after hostages have been taken is even worse)

          There is no reducing tensions with a group that has repeatedly vowed to wipe out Israel and every Jew in the world while at the same time stating that they wish for more Palestinians civilians, men, women and children, to spill their blood for the cause.

          Also there should be no reducing tensions with a group that has illegally detained people, committing a genocide, and vowed to wipe to every Palestinian, while killing their own civilians for their own political gain as well

          The best case scenario is Netanyahu is hanged, Hamas leaders are arrested and whatever the court decides to do with them, a two state solution, and heavy military on the border of the two states.

          Security measures do not mean illegally killing innocent civilians, conquering land and torturing innocent people

          Anyone who calls themselves ‘left-leaning’, hates hamas, but cheers Israel, is not ‘left leaning’ they are a hypocrite, “You are either against fascism of all forms, or you are a hypocrite, you condemn a terrorist organization, and terrorism done by a government”

          Israel is not any sort of ‘hero’, it’s a black mark on every jew, they portray themselves as the pope of jews, but are committing the most heinous crimes, against international laws, against the Geneva conventions, and they justify it with the phrase ‘My ancestors were a victim of the holocaust’, any person who doesn’t fully consider the situation will definitely see this as the principles of Judaism, Israel is a big reason for the rising Anti-semtism

          The fact that the October 7 massacres inspired waves of antisemitic violence across the globe only further confirms to the Jewish people just how important having a Jewish homeland is, the only place in the world where a Jew doesn’t have to think twice before wearing a kippah.

          This is not the 1500’s, you can’t just declare war and conquer some land, is your solution to rising antisemitism is to get every jew the nationality of Israel?

          What about the rise of Islamophobia in the world? You have to think twice before wearing a hijab in france (and possibly the whole Europe as well in the next few years), how about we make a separate state for every religion, ethnic group and a race? A white state, a black state, a christian state, an LGBT state, a Straight state, a jewish state, a buddhist state etc? We should learn to at-least tolerate other people’s beliefs and choices, not ‘please go somewhere else’

          And funnily enough you contradict your whole argument in the last paragraph

    • @[email protected]
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      410 months ago

      You could say most of the same things about how Israel has used Palestinian civilians as hostages in their plan to colonize occupied territories.