Last Friday, I had a conversation with a friend about the comparison between Hamas and the Nazis. I explained that this similarity does not stem from an Israeli sense of victimhood, but from solid historical facts.

We talked about the Hamas charter, which mirrors Hitler’s Mein Kampf, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Goebbels’ propaganda. In both cases, the goal is the same: the total demonization of the Jews, portraying them as the evil rulers of the world, justifying their persecution, and ultimately — clear calls for their destruction.

The Palestinians also embrace language blaming Jews for all the world’s wrongs throughout history — and many don’t know that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (the Palestinian Arabs’ leader prior to 1948) actually worked closely with Hitler to bring about the destruction of every Jew in the world.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, everything I tried to explain in words became a reality that needed no interpretation. Three Israeli hostages returned from hell — Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami — and their emaciated bodies told everything that is impossible to describe in words. It was an image that shocked every Jew, and every human being with a conscience. These living skeletons reminded us of the pictures we thought were left behind, in black and white, from 1940s Europe.

Ohad Ben Ami tried to introduce some humor when joking with his family: “I left you in size XL and came back in size Medium.” But behind the laughter was an unbearably harsh truth — his body, like that of his fellow captives, is a living testimony of abuse, starvation, and suffering with no end in sight. Skin stretched over protruding bones, lifeless eyes, physical weakness that turned their ability to walk into a struggle. These were not prisoners released — they were survivors.

Other Hamas survivors were not so lucky; Eli Sharabi found out after nearly 500 days in hell that his wife and three daughters were massacred by Hamas — just like what the Nazis did.

And if that’s not shocking enough, it turned out that in recent days, they had seen some improvement in their conditions — meaning, the images we saw were of hostages “in relatively good condition.” If this is the case, the question arises: what kind of hell did they endure before? What did they look like when they were even weaker? And what will the long term consequences of their torture be?

In recent days, the Red Cross has raised complaints about Israel releasing Palestinian murderers in shackles as part of the deal with Hamas — something that allegedly harms their dignity. What will the Red Cross say now? Will they claim another success story? Another successful operation for an organization that failed to convey even a small message of hope to those Israeli hostages — not to mention food and medicine. The same organization that failed in Theresienstadt in 1941, during the Ma’alot massacre in 1974, in the Gilad Shalit affair, and in many other incidents — failed once again now. But the main thing is that the dignity of Palestinian murderers should not be harmed.

The gap between this week’s colored pictures of Israeli hostages and the black-and-white images from the Holocaust is only technical. The essence remains the same. Empty eyes, bodies starved to the point of being mere shadows of themselves, relentless torture. History doesn’t repeat itself in the same way, but it echoes — and again, we are witnessing images we thought were relegated to the past.

There is not a single Jew, not a single human being, whose place is in the hands of these perpetrators of evil. The State of Israel is obligated to bring them all back. Every day they remain there is a moral stain, a silent cry that we, as Jews, cannot leave unanswered.

Itamar Tzur is an Israeli scholar and Middle East expert who holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Jewish History and a Master’s degree with honors in Middle Eastern Studies. As a senior member of the “Forum Kedem for Middle Eastern Studies and Public Diplomacy”. Tzur leverages his academic expertise to enhance understanding of regional dynamics and historical contexts within the Middle East.

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