On Thursday, pictures and videos went viral showing Hamas fighters surrendering en masse. The IDF had moved into southern Gaza to target Khan Younis, one of the terrorist government's last strongholds. Reports are weapons and tunnels being found everywhere in the city were prevalent.
What was also prevalent were Hamas and Hamas-affiliated individuals who decided they'd rather come out of their tunnels and surrender than get drowned in seawater. The men who gave it up were stripped to their underwear to ensure they weren't carrying any explosives or other weapons and lined up on the streets and beaches to be processed.
As soon as those pictures were released, you knew it wouldn't be long before the pro-Hamas liberals of the West started crying foul. Sure enough, some of the worst offenders were essentially accusing the IDF of war crimes for the grave sin of...taking prisoners.
Ironically, though they didn't mean to be, they are correct. It is a Western value to not just shoot terrorists on sight but instead take them captive without beating them, raping them, breaking their bones, or chopping their heads off. If Thomas Fazi and Jeet Heer remain confused about that point, I've got some pictures from October 7th that I can show him for comparison.
What is even the suggestion being made? If Israel bombs them, they are bad. If they shoot them during a ground offensive, they are bad. Now, we are being told Israel can't take prisoners lest it humiliate the poor terrorists. Do the math there. These spoiled Western intellectuals who constantly infantilize Hamas simply want Israel to tie its own hands behind its back and wait for the knife. That's what they are suggesting.
Of course, it wouldn't be an article on pro-Hamas meltdowns without America's most ridiculous antisemite making an appearance.
To be clear, no "innocent civilians" have been identified in the photos. All of those detained were taken prisoner after they came out of the tunnels. Among them are supposedly some "journalists" and "academics" of the pro-Hamas variety. Whether they were direct fighters or not is irrelevant. No one gets to walk out of a terror tunnel from an evacuated area without being treated as a POW.
This is the idiocy Israel has to put up with. In any other war involving any other country, no one would claim the taking of prisoners is inhumane. Certainly, no one would cry about a "journalist" being detained if they walked out of one of Osama Bin Laden's tunnels. Common sense goes out the window when it comes to Israel, though. Antisemitism is a heck of a drug.