They don’t actually want the hostages released. As that would ruin the narrative
One source with knowledge of the talks, which slowed after the Israeli ground invasion, said a central point of discussion was a demand by the Israeli side for Hamas to provide a full list specifying the name and details of each person held in Gaza. The Israeli side was unwilling to cease bombardments without receiving this list.
Hamas responded that it was unable to provide the list without a pause in the fighting, as the estimated 240 hostages were held by a number of different groups in places across Gaza. That suggested even Hamas leaders do not know for sure how many people are held captive, their locations or the number who have survived the bombardments.
There’s a lot of conflicting information from the sources in this story though.
If Israel kills em all in bombing campaigns then it can blame Hamas for killing them and go even more mask off in its eradication of the Palestinian people. Like where else would Hamas keep hostages other than the Hamas bases that Israel has been bombing non fuxking stop.
If an idf soldier stubbed their toe they’d blame it on Hamas and shoot out the kneecaps of a Palestinian child in retaliation
You’d think Israel would know who is missing…
But then again, they did fire tank shells at Israeli civilians, so maybe the bodies are so fucked up it’s impossible to get a positive ID?
Here I go killin’ again!
An end to the fighting would mean an end to the Coalition government.
That would mean Netanyahu facing his corruption trials.
