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Israel Must Unite to Fight Hamas’ Terror and Propaganda War

US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Russian-Israeli Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are escorted by Palestinian Hamas terrorists and Islamic Jihad terrorists as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
In traditional warfare, the battlefield is clear. You see the enemy. You hear the sirens. You count the missiles. But Israel, as always, faces a war that blurs the lines between military strategy and emotional sabotage –a war not only on the ground, but deep within the psyche of a nation.
Hamas, the Iranian-backed terror organization ruling Gaza, has mastered one of modern conflict’s darkest arts: psychological warfare. They have turned the Internet into a weapon. Videos of hostages — terrified, manipulated, humiliated — are not just propaganda. They are strategically deployed weapons of emotional devastation.
But this battle is not about videos alone. It’s about the manipulation of compassion, the exploitation of democratic discourse, and the destabilization of a society through empathy.
The Weaponization of Compassion
Israel is a nation of deep moral conscience. It grieves loudly. It fights to protect the innocent. It prioritizes human life in ways that its enemies weaponize against it.
Hamas understands this. Every video of a hostage, especially before a key vote, holiday, or diplomatic event, is timed like a sniper’s bullet. It’s not random. It’s a message: We control your emotions. We control your narrative.
These releases are not for humanitarian updates. They are crafted to inflict maximum psychological trauma, not only on the hostages’ families, but on Israeli society as a whole.
Fear Without Fire: The Modern Terror Strategy
The goal is not to kill Israelis with bombs, but to paralyze them with fear, guilt, and self-doubt. No less deadly. No less effective. Only cheaper and harder to fight.
Every parent in Israel sees their own child in those trembling faces. Every partner sees their loved one behind those haunted eyes. Hamas wants Israel to implode from within, to become so emotionally torn that it can no longer function rationally in the global arena or on the battlefield.
The psychological assault spreads far beyond the hostages:
- Families are caught between agony and helplessness.
- Protesters, driven by despair, inadvertently empower the very terrorists holding their loved ones.
- Governments are pushed to make concessions that could cost more lives long-term.
Emotional Blackmail in High Definition
Unlike in past wars, Hamas doesn’t need international media to spin a story. It broadcasts its own theater of cruelty. And it knows exactly how the world, and particularly Israel, will respond.
The demand is always the same: make a deal. Give us convicted murderers. Give us PR victories. Give us control.
But what seems like a “deal” is, in reality, a trap. Each concession is a message to Hamas: kidnapping works. And so, the next round begins before the last one ends.
Israel is thus caught in an impossible loop: damned if it acts, damned if it doesn’t. That is the very nature of terror’s psychological grip.
The Role of the Protests
Israelis are a passionate, democratic people. Their instinct to protest, to demand answers, is admirable. But in this context, it becomes a double-edged sword.
Every protest that demands a hostage deal at any cost, signals to Hamas that their strategy is working. That the emotional toll they’ve placed on Israeli society is tightening.
This isn’t to blame the families. Their pain is unimaginable. But it is a wake-up call for the public: don’t let your heart be hijacked by those who would use it against you.
Global Silence, Global Complicity
When ISIS broadcasted beheadings, the world rightly recoiled. When Al-Qaeda used hostages for leverage, international pressure followed. But when Hamas engages in the same barbarity, veiled in the language of “resistance,” much of the world remains quiet.
Why?
Because Hamas understands how to manipulate Western sensitivities. They present themselves as victims. Their hostage videos are not just meant for Israelis, but for the world — designed to cast Israel as cruel, regardless of its actions. Designed to portray terrorists as humanitarians, and a democratic state as inhumane.
It’s the darkest inversion of truth, and yet it works far too often.
The Real Battlefield: National Resilience
This war will not be won with firepower alone. It will be won with clarity, unity, and moral resolve. The Israeli government must continue to act with wisdom and strength, never caving to emotional extortion, no matter how painful.
And the Israeli people must remain steadfast. Empathy must not become a vulnerability. Compassion must not be surrendered to manipulation.
The terrorists want Israelis to believe they are alone. That their government has failed. That unity is futile. But nothing terrifies Hamas more than a nation that refuses to be broken.
This Is A War For The Soul
The face of modern terrorism is not always masked. Sometimes, it stares straight into the camera, crying for help, while behind the scenes, its captors smile at the chaos they’ve unleashed.
We must be strong enough to see the whole picture.
Israel is not just defending its citizens. It is defending truth, morality, and the value of life itself against an enemy that celebrates death and deceit.
This is a war for the soul. And it will be won not only with courage on the battlefield, but with clarity of purpose at home.
Sabine Sterk is the CEO of Time To Stand Up For Israel.
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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.