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Disgusting Palestinian Mockery: Tortured Israeli Hostages Were in ‘Vacation Resorts’
Released hostage, Ohad Ben Ami, who was seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, embraces a loved one as he is reunited with his family at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on February 8, 2025. Photo: Haim Zach/GPO/Handout via REUTERS
In a grotesque editorial in its official paper, the Palestinian Authority (PA) wrote last week that Hamas is releasing the Israeli hostages after almost a year and a half “in good health” and “without dust on their clothes, as if they had been in vacation resorts.”
The PA even stated that Hamas “did not protect only their lives but also their welfare,” releasing them “with gifts”:
PA editorial: “They [Hamas] handed over the hostages with gifts and in good health! … completely committed to the agreement, with the release of [Israeli] hostages without dust on their clothes, as if they had been in vacation resorts! They [Hamas] did not protect only their lives but also their welfare.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 2, 2025]
The photos of the three male hostages Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami, who were released on Saturday, prove how odious the PA’s distorted claim is.
The Israeli hostages were starved, tortured, and kept in the dark for almost the entire period of their captivity. The appearances of Levy, Sharabi, and Ben Ami resemble those of Holocaust survivors emerging from the Nazi death camps in 1945.
Indeed, Israeli medical sources who treated the three told the press that “their condition is no different than people who spent a year in a concentration camp,” according to YNet News. Other released hostages have revealed the severe physical, psychological, and sexual abuse they suffered from the Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians who held them captive.
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed the PA Foreign Ministry’s ridicule of Israel, which it said “whines about 100 hostages.”
The following is a longer excerpt of the PA’s editorial:
The Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, when they were handed over [to the Red Cross] while they were most neatly dressed, became through populist demonstrations a kind of message from Hamas to Israel. The message is that [the Hamas members] have reached a state of logical thinking, obedience, and good behavior, as they handed over the hostages with gifts and in good health! …
More than 50,000 female and male Martyrs and more than 100,000 wounded — and the result is an agreement of performances for [internal] consumption and messages that confirm to Israel: We are completely committed to the agreement, with the release of hostages without dust on their clothes, as if they had been in vacation resorts!
They [Hamas] did not protect only their lives but also their welfare, but they forgot and neglected protecting the lives of the Gaza Strip residents, whose lives and homes have been crushed by Israeli fighter jets for 15 months! They, who cover themselves with a religious guise, forgot and ignored the fact that one of the goals of Islamic law is to protect life, mind, and property.
Was it not possible to hand over these hostages in the first week of Israel’s war against the Gaza Strip, after it became clear that it is a highly aggressive and wild war?
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 2, 2025]
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Disgusting Palestinian Mockery: Tortured Israeli Hostages Were in ‘Vacation Resorts’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.