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Hamas’s Grotesque Parading of Hostage Bodies Shows True Face of Their Vile Ideology
A drone view shows Palestinians and terrorists gathering around Red Cross vehicles on the day Hamas hands over the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
This week, the world witnessed one of the most macabre displays of cruelty in recent history, adding insult to injury to the horrors we all saw on Oct. 7, 2023. In the heart of Gaza, Hamas staged a grotesque ceremony, parading the bodies of four murdered Israeli hostages — 32-year-old loving mother Shiri Bibas and her two gorgeous children, Ariel (4) and Kfir (9 months), along with 83-year-old peace activist Oded Lifshitz — before the cameras, flanked by masked terrorists brandishing assault rifles alongside cheering Gazans.
To be clear, this was not about returning remains to grieving families. It was a calculated, sadistic performance deliberately designed to inflict maximum pain and suffering on those who had spent over 500 days praying for the safe return of their loved ones. It was barbarism incarnate, a pageant of death, an orgy of evil, orchestrated by men who claim to represent God but whose actions reveal them as the ultimate desecrators of His name.
There was no tactical necessity for this display. The hostages were already dead. Hamas could have simply handed their remains to the Red Cross quietly, as any group with even a shred of human decency would have done.
Instead, they turned the return of these four innocent victims into a piece of monstrous theater, ensuring that every Israeli, every Jew, and, frankly, every person with even a shred of humanity felt a knife twist in the open wound of their anguish. The intention was clear: to deepen the grief, to prolong the suffering, and to display their utter contempt for human life.
Contrast this with the core principles of Judaism, the foundation of all monotheistic faiths — including Islam. The Torah teaches that human dignity (kavod habriyot) is paramount.
As the medieval commentator Rashi famously notes at the beginning of Parshat Mishpatim, the Torah’s placement of civil and social justice laws immediately after the Revelation at Sinai highlights that ethical treatment of fellow human beings is not secondary to divine worship — it is its very manifestation. How we treat others is a direct reflection of our relationship with God.
In Jewish tradition, even the remains of one’s enemies must be treated with dignity. The Torah commands (Deut. 21:23) that those executed for capital crimes must be buried immediately and respectfully — “For he that is hanged is a curse unto God.”
Rashi, citing the Talmud (Sanhedrin 46b), explains that every human being is created in the image of God (tzelem Elokim), and leaving a body hanging is a desecration of God’s dignity. The analogy is that of a king whose twin is publicly hanged — onlookers might mistakenly assume it reflects upon the king himself.
And if the Torah demands respect even for the worst criminals, how much more so for innocent civilians, for women, for children?
But Hamas, and by extension radical Islam, operates on an entirely different value system. To them, human life is expendable — both the lives of their enemies and their own. They strap suicide vests to teenagers, use hospitals as shields, and celebrate mass murder as divine service. Their god is not the Merciful One; it is a bloodthirsty idol that revels in human misery.
And yet, they dare present themselves as a religious movement. How can an organization that parades corpses and blasts triumphant music over coffins claim to be a messenger of God?
How can a movement that holds hostages for political leverage, tortures them, and then defiles their bodies speak in the language of faith?
This is not religion. It is a grotesque mockery of faith, an abomination in the eyes of any true believer.
Then there is Qatar, the supposed ‘mediator’ between Hamas and Israel, but in reality, the host of Hamas’s leadership and the financier of their operations. Qatar would have the world believe it is an “honest broker,” a neutral party seeking peace.
But what honest broker would facilitate such a monstrous display? What mediator with even a shred of integrity would stand by while the bodies of slaughtered children were exploited for propaganda? Where is their outrage?
Even the United Nations, an institution notoriously biased against Israel, was appalled by this latest act of barbarity. UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the handover, calling the display of bodies “abhorrent and cruel” and declaring that it blatantly violated international law.
“Under international law, any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” he said in a statement.
The truth is that Qatar is not a mediator. It is an enabler. It is the financial and political patron of Hamas, providing them safe haven in Doha’s luxury hotels while their foot soldiers in Gaza carry out atrocities.
If Qatar had any real interest in peace, it would not be shielding Hamas leadership – it would be expelling them. If Qatar had any concern for human life, it would be pressuring Hamas to release hostages alive rather than supporting their murder and the humiliation of their corpses.
Qatar’s duplicity must be exposed, and real consequences must follow when this war is finally over. Their assets in the West should be frozen. Their privileged status as a US non-NATO ally must be revoked. And the US military base in Doha should be relocated to a Gulf state that genuinely seeks to consign radical Islam to the dustbin of history.
If the world truly wishes to rid the region of radical Islam, Qatar must be forced to choose a side: civilization or barbarism. There is a sickness in our world, and it has many enablers. Hamas is the disease, but its financiers, apologists, and media cheerleaders are the vectors.
And in the face of this evil, there can be no moral equivocating. There is no ‘both sides’ when one side parades the corpses of murdered babies as trophies. There is no ‘cycle of violence’ when one side revels in death while the other seeks to protect life.
The return of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz should have been an occasion for solemnity and mourning. Instead, Hamas turned it into a grotesque spectacle, a final act of cruelty inflicted upon those they had already murdered.
The world must take note. This is what radical Islam represents. This is the true face of Hamas, and the many in Gaza who love them and support their vile ideology.
And those who stand by, those who refuse to call out this evil, those who continue to treat Hamas as anything other than the monstrous death cult that it is — they are also complicit.
Editor’s note: The Israeli military said on Friday that one of the bodies released by Hamas that was supposed to be Shiri Bibas did not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza. Bibas’s status is currently unknown.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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