Only 20 hostages out of nearly 50 whom Israel hoped to see return home were still alive, but huge numbers of Israelis turned out to greet them joyously. The contrast between the culture of life in Israel and the culture of death in Gaza could not be more stark.
As part of the deal that Donald Trump brokered with the help of other Muslim nations, including Hamas backer Qatar, Israel is set to release thousands of Gazans, including 250 life sentence jihadi prisoners. Israel wants the world to know not only its jubilation at the hostages’ return but also its great sacrifice in agreeing to release criminals who killed their people in previous conflicts. Below is the beginning of Israel’s X feed, which aims to contrast the innocent civilians that Hamas finally released with the prisoners Hamas received back:
The first jihadi, pictured above, is Iyad Abu al-Rub. He was, during the Second Intifada, the senior commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin and leader of the group’s military wing. He orchestrated two suicide bombings in 2003 in 2005 that cost the lives of seven Israelis. He also planned for more suicide bombings and fired on Israeli forces multiple times. The state of Israel is right to draw a contrast between such a murderer as this and the entirely innocent Israeli hostages who spent two years in Hamas captivity simply for being citizens of a Jewish nation.
As for the released senior Hamas commander Imad Qawasmeh, he had organized the twin bus suicide bombings in Beersheba in 2004 that left 16 Israelis dead and 100 others injured. He also trafficked weapons. He was originally sentenced to serve 16 life terms.
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The other released Palestinians include Fatah terrorist Ismail Hamdan, Fatah–Tanzim commander Riyad Al-Amour, Hamas terrorist Bakr Badr, Hamas terrorist Abdul Jawad Shamasneh (whose victims were teens), Hamas’s Nasri Ayed Hassin Amassi, Islamic Jihad terrorist Samir Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Nima (whose attacks cost over 50 victims), Hamas’s Ahmad Adel Jaber Saada, Hamas terrorist Mohammed Shamasneh (multiple teen victims), and Fatah terrorist Ayham Kamamgi. All are killers, and all but one of them murdered multiple Israelis.
Israel has good reason to be worried about releasing these terrorists. Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar was traded back to Gaza in a previous hostage deal when the Israelis released hundreds of prisoners for a single soldier. The so-called Palestinians know that Israelis value life so much more than they do that they can always demand greater numbers of prisoners.
We pray that the hostages heal and rebuild their lives so that they can eventually move beyond the two years in nightmarish captivity. We also pray for those whose hostage family members died in Gaza and will never return home, which includes all of the remaining women. But there will be another war.
Islam commands jihad, and jihad will exist as long as Islam exists. In fact, Hamas is already rounding up any Gazans whom it allegedly suspects of cooperating with Israel. We pray that this next time, Israel will be fully prepared to repel the jihadi invasion, and that no Israeli ever has to endure again two years in hellish conditions in Gaza. Am Yisrael Chai.
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