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Israel Must Remain Focused on Defeating Hamas Above All Else
An Israeli soldier stands during a two-minute siren marking the annual Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, at an installation at the site of the Nova festival where party goers were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, in Reim, southern Israel, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
JNS.org – Imagine an alternate reality in which Hamas took no hostages. One in which the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks still occurred but without the savage barbarity of mass rape, depraved torture and mutilation, and the kidnapping of hundreds as bargaining chips. Tranquil villages and military bases are still overrun. More than 1,000 Israelis—mostly civilians — are still viciously slaughtered. But the attack is ultimately repelled without a single hostage taken.
Would Israel’s response have been different? Would the strategic necessity of annihilating Hamas be absent?
The answer is no. Not even slightly. Even without hostages in enemy hands, no country that wants to survive could countenance the existence of a genocidal terror organization on its borders after such an attack. Any country would consider neutralizing such an adversary a strategic imperative.
This imperative is independent of the crucial task of rescuing and returning the hostages. Supporters of Israel must understand this and say so unequivocally.
This is why linking the release of the hostages to ending the war is at best misguided. In the long run, it serves Hamas’s interests. Yet public officials, pundits and politicians continue to call for “a return of the hostages and an end to the fighting.” This absurd platitude suggests that the hostages are the only reason for the war. Such sentiment is not just prevalent among ignorant millennial TikTok stars and Hollywood celebrities. It is ubiquitous in the highest ranks of international, American and Israeli policymakers.
Foremost among them is the Biden administration. Its rhetoric began with “Hamas must be eliminated” but slowly collapsed into self-serving diplomatic gobbledygook about the need “to secure the release of hostages together with an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”
Intentionally or not, this plays directly into the hands of Hamas. Not only because it raises the premium for a hostage release, but because it obscures the fact that Israel must defeat and annihilate Hamas no matter what. Hamas is a highly competent and motivated Islamist terror group that succeeded in inflicting a devastating blow and would do so again if given the chance. To have such an organization a mere hour’s drive from Tel Aviv is unacceptable, to say the least.
The temptation to focus exclusively on the hostages and their return is understandable. Many well-meaning supporters of Israel have earnestly submitted to it. Sadly, in the struggle for international legitimacy and persuasion, such a focus does have benefits. Past atrocities quickly fade from the collective global memory. But the hostages are still held in unspeakable conditions. As a result, their plight is pressing and visceral.
Nonetheless, the necessity of destroying Hamas would have been the same if not a single hostage had been taken. Thus, the leading pro-Israel hashtag shouldn’t be #bringthemhomenow but #crush_hamas. The military dog tags worn by many Israel supporters should signify support for IDF soldiers at least as much as advocacy for the hostages’ return.
The hostages force Hamas to pay a heavy price for international legitimacy. It does make them look bad. Nonetheless, they thought it was a chance worth taking. The essential question is: Will their gamble pay off? A hostage deal that stops the war indefinitely would vindicate Hamas’s strategy. If they succeed in playing the hostage card to secure their survival, it will mean that they were right all along. Whatever price they paid in public relations was worth it because taking the hostages saved their skins. This would only incentivize future mass kidnappings.
Many people have already pointed this out. But so far, they have not pointed out that the exclusive focus on the hostages unwittingly lays the groundwork for the disastrous concessions they oppose. In the end, it will force Israel to abandon its only real strategic imperative: the destruction of Hamas.
The current frenzy surrounding Rafah demonstrates this point quite well. Despite the protestations of many, if every single hostage were miraculously teleported out of Gaza, the elimination of the Hamas stronghold in Rafah would remain as crucial and urgent as it is now.
The suffering of the hostages, as well as their friends and families, is heartbreaking. But we must never lose sight of the fact that this war was always about one thing: crushing Hamas.
Yonatan Green is an Israeli-American attorney who is currently a fellow at the Georgetown University Center for the Constitution.
The post Israel Must Remain Focused on Defeating Hamas Above All Else first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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