Fascist Moscow Slandering Democratic Kyiv

"You see, if we just stop, it means forgetting the root causes of this conflict which the American administration clearly understood."

"I am referring to ensuring Ukraine's non-aligned, non-nuclear status, which implies refraining from any attempts to draw it into NATO."

"[Freezing the fighting at this point] would mean only one things: a large part of Ukraine would remain under Nazi rule."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 

 

"Russia's Stalling Tactics have shown time and time again that Ukraine is the only party serious about peace."

"We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction."

Joint statement by Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland 

 

"Let it [the contested region] be cut the way it is."

"It's cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia... I said: cut and stop at the battle line."

"Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people."

U.S. President Donald Trump 

Russia has rejected European calls for a ceasefire based on existing front lines  Reuters

 

President Trump's call on Tuesday to freeze Ukraine fighting at the current front line was rejected by Russia. Last week the U.S. president stated he believed that Vladimir Putin wanted to secure a deal. Yet Trump's most recent demand for "an immediate ceasefire" was sloughed off by Russian foreign Minister Lavrov, as a non-starter "which has suddenly become a topic of discussion again". 

 

Calling it the opposite of what was agreed to at the Alaska summit when Trump and Putin met in August. At that juncture Trump had left off pressuring Putin to end the fighting before negotiations began.

 

On Saturday, Trump stated that both Russia and Ukraine should agree to stop fighting, that Kyiv and Moscow had to "stop the war immediately at the current battle lines". Following which Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and top E.U. officials signed off on a statement Tuesday giving their support to the proposal for a ceasefire along the existing line of contact, prior to any talks. 

 

Firefighters work at the site of a building housing a kindergarten hit by a Russian drone strike, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, Nov.22. (Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters)

 

As for Russia's efforts at negotiations and its interest in ending the conflict, the statement reflected the group's skepticism about Russian sincerity. It is this very disagreement  that was likely responsible for the  delay in a planned face-to-face meeting between Lavrov and Secretary of State Marco Rubio set for this week in preparation for the proposed Trump-Putin summit in Budapest. That would be replaced, stated Lavrov, with phone contact between the two leaders.

 

Trump had accepted Putin's rejection of a ceasefire, at the Alaska summit. It had been decided that the best way to end the war was to "go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere ceasefire agreement which often times do not hold up", Trump had recorded on Truth Social, his social media site. 

 

Since no agreement was reached, and the matter was left up in the  air for future discussion, Russia felt free to ramp  up its attacks on Ukraine while resisting Trump's later calls for a meeting between Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Putin once again demanded during Thursday's phone call with Trump, that Ukraine surrender all of Donetsk region, including territory Russia had yet to conquer, clarified U.S. officials.

 

On Friday at a subsequent White House meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump urged him to surrender all of the Donbas, inclusive of Donetsk region, portraying it as an opportunity to get a deal, rather than see his country destroyed by Russia. This was yet another meeting with a tense atmosphere prevailing, according to people familiar with the exchange that had taken place.

 

Nevertheless at the conclusion of the inconclusive meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump echoed a stance that Zelenskyy had endorsed, calling for a ceasefire along the front line, as it currently stood. A call that served to incense Lavrov, no doubt in emulation of Vladimir Putin's reaction. 

 

 

 

Screams Before Silence

"Hamas is a political force."

"When you think of Hamas, you should not necessarily think of cutthroats, people armed to the teeth, or fighters. It's not like that." 

"Our collective obliviousness to what led, 100 years ago, to the Third Reich’s expansionism and the genocide of people not in conformity with the 'pure race' is asinine. And it is leading to the commission of yet another genocide..."

"Fellow Europeans, Italians, Germans: after the Holocaust, we should instinctively know that Genocide starts with dehumanizing the Other. If Israel's current attack agst [sic] Palestinians doesnt [sic] prompt our strong reaction, the darkest page of our recent history has taught us nothing."

"...Many Jewish people worldwide, unconditionally in love with Israel, live a lie. Premised upon the invisibilization/erasure [sic] of the Palestinians, Israel's founding ideology [and lie] is now leading to a genocide. What a disgraceful epilogue."

"Time to #UNseatIsrael from the UN."

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese  

A general view shows the assembly during a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Iran, at the United Nations in Geneva. (Valentin Flauraud/AFP)

  

After two years of conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, following hard on Palestinian terrorism committing unspeakable atrocities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the guns are silent. Almost. The guns are still there. But the full-blown assaults one on the other have been stilled. Hamas deliberately and with malice aforethought planned a devastatingly traumatic event in an orgy of hate and blood-lust, when it dispatched four thousand operatives, mostly representing Hamas, but also Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, with orders to commit mass rape, torture, a wide arc of killing, and the abduction of Israeli children, civilian men and women, and foreign farm workers as hostages.

 

Matters were too silent for too long as far as Hamas, which had signed a ceasefire/hudna with Israel, felt, and matters were proceeding that disturbed their agenda of isolating Israel, demoralizing its population and finagling the Jewish state's elimination, when important Arab/Muslim countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, joined Egypt and Jordan in signing a peace agreement with Israel  under the Abraham Accords, with signals that more would follow. The atrocities the Palestinian terrorist groups, joined by two thousand ordinary Palestinian civilians, wrought in Israel that day were flagrant examples of sadistic savagery meant to traumatize the Israeli population and shock its government. It did all of that.

 

 

And then the enormity of the event, the depth of the depravity in mutilating girls and women while raping and murdering them, of burning entire families alive in their homes, of killing anyone the marauding terrorists found in the streets unaware of a vicious armed invasion taking place, and hunting down thousands of fearful young Israelis at a music festival  to rape, murder and abduct, galvanized the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces into a response, where the military following government orders set out to destroy Palestinian terror, its infrastructures, its weapons depots, its hiding places, while searching for the hostages.

 

The Gaza population was offered as a sacrifice to terrorism's goals with the deliberate intention on the part of Hamas leaders, to have as much collateral damage as possible inflicted on their populace to serve as a springboard in presenting Israel as a genocidal aggressor, augmenting their general representation of Palestinian victimhood at the hands of an oppressor that had nothing better to do than target Palestinians for death, a complete inversion of the Hamas covenant that bound it to the complete eradication of the Jewish state from the Middle East, and the death of Jews anywhere.

 

Screams Before Silence, presents testimonies from victims, rescuers, and researchers about the violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7

 

Latent antisemitism comes alive when Israel is portrayed as a heartless aggressor, and those in any society that seem to have Jew-hate imprinted in their DNA are always eager to take such charges at face value, justifying their own beliefs about Jewish intentions to rule the world. The United Nations, the international institution whose stated goal is world peace, assigned an arm to oversee conditions and give aid to Palestinians in Gaza through UNRWA, and like the UN's Francesca Albanese, its appointed heads have always been thorough antisemites, while their employment of local Palestinians featured members of the various terrorist groups; neutrality is an unknown concept there, as is fairness and decency.

 

The people of Gaza have been ruled for the past several decades by an Islamist totalitarian government. Funded by the international community, overseen by the United Nations which has never had a problem defending the ongoing violence that Palestinians perpetrated over the last 80 years on Israel, while their leaders refused time and again to lay down arms and malice and agree to recognizing Israel's right of existence and establishing a state of their own alongside Israel. Their solution was a one-state settlement; a Palestinian state and no room for the presence of a Jewish state.

 

Armed fighters in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Monday.  Abed Rahim Khatib / DPA via Getty Images

 

Now that the conflict has been paused, settled, awaiting results, plans are afoot to reconstruct Gaza once Hamas has surrendered its arms and faded into history. Hamas has no intention of doing either, despite its agreement to the ceasefire and its conditions, and the anxiety of the Middle East (with the exception of the Iran axis) to cement peace between Israel and 'Palestine'. In foreign parts across the world, Europe and North America, the massed protests supporting Palestine (and Hamas) calling for a ceasefire, should rightly see a mass sigh of relief, but those who were dedicated to achieving a ceasefire, were also firmly dedicated to opposing Israel's existence.

 

That hasn't changed, thanks to a massive influx of Muslim supporters of Palestine having over time infiltrated Western society, finding common cause with Western homegrown socialists, Marxists, 'progressive' academics and unions and just plain old closet Jew-haters, feeling free now to exit their dank basements to rally alongside fellow antisemites. 

 

And Gaza? How's it faring? If you're a member of Hamas, very well. As a civilian Palestinian who desperately wants an end to endless conflict, to repression, to threats and violence, not so good. Because, no longer distracted with shielding itself from Israeli fire meant to destroy the presence of terrorists, Hamas can now devote all its time to rebranding itself as the rightful governance of the territory they plotted to be the recipient of an Israeli response. Now Hamas is free to 'identify' those Palestinians they claim opposed their rule, and chose to collaborate with Israel or with Palestinian clans opposed to Hamas.

 

The order of the day now in Gaza is threats, beatings, public executions and full-blown violence between Hamas operatives charged to destroy family clans that reject Hamas as the ruling power in Gaza. Hamas once again rules that part of the territory where the IDF has no presence. Insisting they are implementing law and order, and executing the 'criminals' in Palestinian society. The population of Gaza once again faces the threat of death from its leaders, now that Hamas gangsters have emerged fully uniformed from their tunnels. Score-settling has turned a war zone into a death zone.

 

Masked gunmen prepare to execute a group of men in Gaza City.  via Reuters

 

 

Hamas's Role and Responsibility for Palestinian Suffering

"The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognize Hamas's role and responsibility for the situation."

"Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides."

"At these sensitive moments in the ongoing negotiations, it is better to avoid statements of this kind."

"Instead of agreeing to a ceasefire, Hamas is busy running a campaign to spread lies about Israel. At the same time, Hamas is deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid."  

Oren Marmorstein, Israel foreign affairs ministry spokesperson 

 

"The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. the Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity."

"We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food."

"[We call on the Israeli government to lift all restrictions on aid delivery and to] enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs [to do their work safely and effectively]."

Joint statement, foreign ministers of France, Britain, Japan, Canada and 24 others 

Palestinian terrorists move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7.   Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

 

Those who signed the joint statement urging that "the war in Gaza must end now", calling on Israel to put a stop to displacing Palestinians, also condemned Hamas for continuing to hold hostages taken from Israel in the October 7, 2023 atrocities, calling for their immediate release. Adding that it is "horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid"; a death toll based on figures released both by the UN human rights office and the Hamas-operated health ministry in Gaza. 

 

The United Nations and its offshoots such as UNRWA are notorious for their underlying support for Hamas, since it was proven that UNRWA employs Hamas operatives some of whom were active participants in the October 7 atrocities that took place in  southern Israel. The cooperation between UN member-bodies and Hamas extends to the full acceptance of all Hamas propaganda statements, inclusive of body counts and accusations of Israel withholding food and medical supplies from Palestinian civilians.

 

This, when it has been well documented that Hamas itself has appropriated humanitarian aid supplied by the UN and stockpiling it in Hamas warehouses, withheld from the civilian population, most often ending up in open air markets where the humanitarian aid sells for inflated prices, the profit of which enhances Hamas's bottom line. Claims of starvation among the populace ignore the reality that many areas of Gaza have more than ample food as marketplaces and videos on social media posted by Gazans themselves demonstrate.

 

Photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel.   Leon Neal/Getty Images

 

That Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from the incursion of the IDF whose purpose is to defang and neutralize the terrorists that have attacked Israeli citizens for decades, culminating in the savagery of October 7, is a result of Hamas deliberately placing them in harm's way to enhance their propaganda of Israel planning a genocide of Palestinians, a narrative picked up by the Western press and given the credence that is denied Israel's denials. 

 

While the West presses Israel for a ceasefire, it ignores the simple and obvious reality that Hamas rejects that ceasefire. That a terrorist group's contentions can influence the critical thought processes of Western leaders is beyond belief, while those same leaders hold Israel to a standard that they themselves would never countenance if their nations were under attack. For Israel to unilaterally stand back and allow Hamas to continue reorganizing, rearming, and replanning attacks against the Jewish state with the intention of destroying it seems to make no inroads in the mental gymnastics the West engages in.

 

Decrying an expansion of West Bank settlements and the move to separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, is a lesson in total hypocrisy. The Palestinians have never been satisfied with having the West Bank and Gaza Strip to themselves; they make no secret in demanding the eradication of Israel to enable their sovereignty over the entire geographic area 'from the river (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) sea, Israel's ancestral patrimony. None of the nations decrying these issues would consider surrendering their capital cities to upstarts, yet with the steady migration of Islamism this is what their future augurs.

 

The 'two-state solution' they insist on imposing on Israel, has been rejected time and time again by Palestinian leaders. Their ideal is a one-state solution, and it is that ideal that they focus on, allowing others to speak of a two-state solution they themselves have no intention of acceding to, and so they continue to deny the 'legality' of Israel's existence. 

 

Palestinians carry supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in May in this file photo.  (Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

 

The food supplies entering Gaza through the auspices of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor supported by both Israel and the United States, actually provides meals and food products and fuel and medical supplies directly to Palestinian civilians, entirely bypassing Hamas's opportunities to ransack the aid delivery trucks, removing its 'authority' to claim the aid for its own purposes. Hamas has punished Palestinians for going directly to the GHF distribution sites, as traitors to the Hamas cause of exterminating Israel. 

 

The United States, Qatar, Egypt  and Germany did not sign the letter. The first three remain at work on  a feasible ceasefire; all of their efforts to date have been rejected by Hamas. Hamas, a terrorist group whose atrocities are in and of themselves an assault in human decency, permitted to exert control because of the back-handed support given it by negotiating with it to begin with, is controlling the narrative. And the democratic state that is an outpost of Western civilization in a generally uncivilized Middle East doing catch-up to the modern era, is once again a sacrificial gift to the forces of evil. 

 

Armed Palestinians sit on trucks carrying humanitarian aid near the Zikim border crossing between Israel and Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 25, 2025. (Ali Qariqa/Flash90)

 

"The First Step In A Movement To Peace"

"[This is the first step in a] movement to peace."

"Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace." 

"The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people."

White House statement

 

"We have received signals from the United States that we are talking about the ceasefire on energy facilities, so not to attack energy infrastructure, and we are also talking about the civilian infrastructure facilities."

"We talked only about one power plant, [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south Ukraine] which is under Russian occupation."

"[I had] felt no pressure [from Trump]. It was a fruitful conversation, perhaps the most fruitful we have had, the mood was positive."

"We instructed our teams to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had ‘a positive, very substantive’ conversation with the US president. Photograph: @ZelenskyyUa/X

 

"The need to halt arms supplies to Kyiv was discussed during Putin and Trump’s conversation."

"[Ceasing military aid would be] high on the agenda in negotiations between Russia and the US, but the topic will not be discussed publicly."

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov

 

"It’s a very strange demand, of course. He [Vladimir Putin] wants Ukraine to give up its army, to give up security guarantees, to give up its right to be in alliances, and to give up on various territories."

"This is what he’s been fighting for for three years, and he couldn’t do it militarily …"

"And now that’s what he wants from the negotiations process."

Zelenskyy aide Mykhailo Podolyak

During a lengthy telephone call on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to seek a limited ceasefire against energy and infrastructure targets in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, an agreement that the White House felt would eventually include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, and ultimately, a full and lasting end to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. 

A statement by the White House added plans for negotiations to "begin immediately" on those steps, to take place in the Middle East, though it was not clear whether Ukraine is in agreement with the phased ceasefire plan. A limited ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes and the release of prisoners was what Ukrainian officials envisaged at their meeting with the U.S. delegation this month in Saudi Arabia.

 

Mr. Putin, on the other hand, according to the Kremlin, welcomed President Trump's calls for the maritime ceasefire and felt confident enough it "agreed to begin negotiations to further work out specific details of such an agreement".  Russia and Ukraine were preparing to exchange 175 prisoners of war on each side the day following, according to the Putin-Trump conversation. Russia planned to hand over to Ukraine in addition, 23 badly wounded soldiers.

 

During the 90-minute conversation, Mr. Putin called on his American counterpart to end its foreign military and intelligence arrangements with Ukraine. While the White House focuses on Russia to sign off on its 30-day ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials agreed last week to the 30-day ceasefire proposal in talks led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, nonetheless remains skeptical that the Russian president is sincere in his oblique statements for peace, given that Russian forces continue to pound his country. The latest engagement is yet another turn in dramatically shifting U.S.-Russia relations reflecting Mr. Trump's pre-election statements of his intention to quickly put an end to the war as a top priority. 

 

That in so doing ties with longtime U.S. allies are strained, given their insistence that Putin must pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine, seems not to trouble Mr. Trump one whit. 

As for Ukraine's president, in his nightly video address on Monday, his statements clearly reflected his doubt that Putin is ready for peace. "Now, almost a week later, it's clear to everyone in the world -- even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years -- that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war", he said.

 

As an aside during the conversation between the U.S. and Russian presidents, the White House later stated that what also came under discussion between the two leaders  during their extensive conversation, is the explosive situation currently unfolding in the Middle East; both purportedly agreeing that "Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel".

 

As for Mr. Putin's longer-range designs, the Kommersant Russian newspaper reported that Putin had informed a meeting of senior business leaders of his intention to continue the fighting until such time that he obtains full control of -- along with international recognition of -- the four regions in Ukraine that Moscow annexed in 2022. Quite obviously, Mr. Putin has abandoned none of his hardline objectives in the war he imposed upon Ukraine.

 

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meeting at a summit in Helsinki, July 2018. EPA-EFE/Mauri Ratilainen

 

Sounds Like an Approach to Regional Conflict...

"There must be a U.S. backstop because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again."

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer

 

"Russia is preparing for a long war. They have now three times the manpower and their defence industry is moving quicker than that of Europe."

"Does anybody believe that this is only aimed at Ukraine?"

"What is the use of security guarantees from a weak party? Europe needs to muscle up right now to be actually able to provide security guarantees that will hold."

Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene

UK PM and French President at 106th anniversary of Armistice Day. Nov2024   AP

In Europe, political and military leaders are busy fleshing out details of a plan for European forces -- on the sidelines of the United States and Russian talks, to which Ukraine has not been invited -- to vigilantly prepare to ensure that Moscow will not attack again. The issue of a united European force is likely to be high on the agenda when U.K. PM Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron visit Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, next week.

 

The proposed force would only be workable if the U.S. military could be relied upon for backing, and persuading Donald Trump to that opinion will be a difficult proposition. What Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is really invested in is NATO membership to ensure the security guarantee he is looking for. Yet while NATO's European members are fully invested in backing Ukraine in its NATO ambition, it seems the U.S. has no intention of paving the way for Ukraine in NATO.

 

With NATO membership closed off to  him, Zelenskyy feels that over 100,000 European troops would be required to guarantee the conflict will not flare up once more following a ceasefire. According to Western officials what is under discussion is not an army of peacekeepers to be posted along the 1,000 kilometr front line in Ukraine's east, but rather a "reassurance force". Fewer than 30,000 European  troops on the ground in Ukraine, distant from the front line at key infrastructure sites, backed with western air and sea power is what the UK and France envision.

 

The front line would, under the plan, be monitored remotely. Based outside Ukraine, air power would be in reserve for the purpose of deterring breaches and to reopen Ukrainian airspace to commercial flights. Presumably U.S. air power could be included, in the opinion of the U.K.'s Starmer. However, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth informed European allies "there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine", without completely ruling out U.S. support like air transport or logistics.

 

French President Macron speaks with Ukrainian soldiers at military camp in France, Oct2024  AP

"Different people in the administration are sending different signals ... Who do you believe, is an issue", commented former senior NATO official Jamie Shea. The closest NATO countries in proximity to Russia, the U.K., France, the Nordic and Baltic states, are likely to be assigned the major roles in any such force as is being proposed. Poland, a key logistics base for support to Ukraine since Russia's invasion does not intend to send  troops into Ukraine, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz commented that discussion of a Europe-led security force is "premature", and he was "a little irritated" that peacekeeping forces were being discussed "at the wrong time", insisting NATO, and not an independent European force, must remain the foundation of Ukrainian security. Russia has a fighting force of some 600,000  troops in Ukraine; according to analysts any ceasefire leaving the bulk of that force in place would be a guarantee of renewed conflict.

 

The French military is comprised of just over 200,000 personnel, the U.K.'s fewer than 150,000; Europe would struggle to mount a force of even tens of thousands, according to Matthew Savill, director of military sciences, Royal United Services Institute. 

British PM Keir Starmer speaks to British soldiers at base in Cyprus, Dec.2024   AP

 

Bringing Them Home

"[Israel will not rest until] all of its war goals are completed, [which includes the return of every single hostage being held in Gaza. The US promised Israel would have the weaponry it needed to return to fighting if necessary]."

"[Israel would do so] in new ways and with very great power."

"In the agreement approved just now, we will get back another 33 of our brothers and sisters — most of them alive."

"President Trump joined the mission to free the hostages from the moment he was elected. He spoke to me on Wednesday evening and welcomed the agreement. [Trump] rightly stressed that the first stage of the accord is a temporary ceasefire. That’s what he said, ‘A temporary ceasefire’."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israelis attend a rally calling for the release of captives held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Women, children, the elderly and the ill are classified as 'humanitarian' for purposes of initial selection in an exchange of hostages for prisoners and it is they, 33 in total number from among whom the initial choices for freedom will be made. They were all randomly, opportunistically snatched from the presumed security of their homes in farming communities, from a feel-good music festival, from bus stops and family outings to be taken to Gaza as human prizes to be held as chess pieces while also being raped, tortured, starved and humiliated in a twisted psychosis of Jew-hate.

 

Three hostages are to be returned Sunday, the initial day of the ceasefire; four on the seventh day, three more for each week in the following four weeks and the final 14 to be released in the sixth week of the agreement. The ceasefire to go into effect at 12:15 p.m. Sunday, the first three hostages, women all, to be freed around 4:00 p.m. Their names were to have been revealed Saturday afternoon by Hamas, but Saturday afternoon arrived and departed and no such revelation was received, causing great unease in Israel by anxious hostage families. But this is typical of Hamas; extracting as much psychological pain as possible from its victims.

Ninety-four of the hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 invasion of thousands of Palestinian terrorists of the Palestinian Islamic and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine groups, led by Hamas, remain in Gaza. One third of the total is presumed to be no longer living. Two mentally unstable Israelis who years before had wandered into the Gaza Strip are also being held. The bodies of two murdered Israel Defense Forces soldiers from an earlier period are also being held for ransom and are to be included in the total released over a period of time in exchange for acceding to Hamas demands.

Israel is to release a thousand Palestinians from incarceration in Israeli prisons. It is also to withdraw its forces from populated areas of the Gaza Strip, among whom, needless to say, Hamas terrorists are prone to placing themselves, treating the civilians as human shields. A list of 95 Palestinian prisoners meant to be released on the first day was published by the Israeli Justice ministry.  Among those to be released are 25 male prisoners under age 21 and 70 women; the youngest among them 16 years of age. Accused of crimes such as incitement, vandalism, supporting terror, terror activities, attempted murder or throwing stones or Molotov cocktails.

Among the most well-known prisoners on the list is Khalida Jarrar, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Among those to be released are murderers of Israelis. A byproduct of securing the release of the Israeli hostages, a steep price to pay, yet one Israeli authorities have countenanced for the urgent purpose of bringing their hostages back home, alive, if at all possible; dead, to be buried with honour, if that is the case. 

Hamas has stated it will not release the remaining captives unless a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal is achieved. Israel has vowed and reiterates that vow repeatedly that it will continue fighting until the Hamas terrorist group is completely dismantled, to ensure that the Hamas pledge to conduct future October 7 atrocities without end will never come to fruition. Israel's intention is to maintain open-ended security control over Gaza. For it has no other choice.

 

A woman and a little girl look at a mural showing female Israeli soldiers taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 18, 2025 (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)