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.

The post Hamas’s Grotesque Parading of Hostage Bodies Shows True Face of Their Vile Ideology first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Photo: Facebook.

A senior Azerbaijani official met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem this week to discuss bilateral ties and regional developments, underscoring Azerbaijan’s growing role as a strategic player in the evolving Middle East.

The high-level meeting between Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, and Netanyahu took place amid strengthening ties between the Jewish state and the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country.

“Mr. Hajiyev conveyed the greetings of President Ilham Aliyev to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tel Aviv said in a statement, adding that both sides discussed expanding bilateral cooperation and addressed key developments in the region.

Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel have long been significant, with the country serving as the Jewish state’s most vital ally in the Caucasus and Central Asia for more than three decades, fostering a partnership that spans energy security, defense, and intelligence.

As of 2019, Azerbaijan supplied over a third of the Jewish state’s oil. Meanwhile, Baku has acquired advanced Israeli defense systems, including the “Barak MX” missile system and surveillance satellites, and remains a leading buyer of Israeli military hardware, which was crucial in its 2020 war with Armenia.

Earlier this month, Israel and Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, struck a major energy deal, marking one of the latest examples of Azerbaijan’s growing influence in the Middle East.

Azerbaijan’s strategic importance stems not only from its economic influence in the region, but also from its role at the crossroads of a growing pro-Western bloc countering the regional ambitions of Iran, with which Azerbaijan shares a long border.

The Abraham Accords reshaped regional alliances during US President Donald Trump’s first term, and his current administration could further this shift, with Azerbaijan – a country that shares hundreds of miles of border with Iran while maintaining strong ties with Israel and Turkey – playing a key role in balancing regional power blocs and advancing Trump’s goals for the Middle East.

According to Ze’ev Khanin, a professor of Eurasian geopolitics at Bar-Ilan University and a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Azerbaijan is a key part of strategic alliances that he calls “unclosed triangles,” with Baku comprising the missing link.

“We are living in the world of so-called unclosed triangles, which is unlike what we had in the 19th century and 20th centuries – when the enemy of my enemy is my friend and the friend of my friend is also my friend,” he recently told The Algemeiner.

One prominent example is the unclosed triangle of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Israel. Despite strained ties between Turkey and Israel, Azerbaijan continues to use Turkey as a transit point for energy exports to Israel.

“The Turks didn’t stop the stream of Azerbaijani energy through Turkey to Israel,” Khanin said, adding that Ankara was eager to position itself as a transit hub for energy exports to Europe.

The post Azerbaijan, Israel Discuss Regional Developments as Bilateral Ties Grow Stronger first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

People gather at a site damaged by Israeli airstrike that killed Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a commemoration ceremony in Beirut southern suburbs, Lebanon, Nov. 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Hezbollah will bury its former leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in a mass funeral aimed at showing political strength after the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group emerged badly weakened from last year’s war.

Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27 in an Israeli airstrike as he met commanders in a bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stunning blow in the early phase of an Israeli offensive that has left the Islamist group a shadow of its former self.

Revered by Hezbollah supporters, Nasrallah led the Shi’ite Muslim group through decades of conflict with Israel, overseeing its transformation into a military force with regional sway and becoming one of the most prominent Arab figures in generations.

The funeral in Beirut’s southern suburbs will also honor Hashem Safieddine, who led Hezbollah for one week after Nasrallah’s death before he was also killed by Israel, underlining how deeply Israeli intelligence had penetrated the paramilitary group. He will be buried in the south on Monday.

“The funeral is a launchpad for the next phase. A great funeral that draws hundreds of thousands is a way of telling everyone that Hezbollah still exists, that it is still the main Shi’ite actor in Lebanon,” said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Israel killed thousands of Hezbollah fighters and inflicted huge destruction in Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon where its supporters live. The impact on Hezbollah was compounded by the ousting of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, severing the supply route to Iran.

Its weakened stature has been reflected in Lebanon’s post-war politics, with the group unable to impose its will in the formation of a new government and language legitimizing its arsenal omitted from the new cabinet’s policy statement.

Sheikh Sadeq al-Nabulsi, a cleric close to Hezbollah, said adversaries in Lebanon and abroad believed the group had been defeated, but the funeral would be a message that this was not the case. It would be a “battle to prove Hezbollah’s existence.”

The ceremony will be held at Lebanon’s biggest sports arena – Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium on the outskirts of the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.

Nasrallah will then be buried at a dedicated site nearby.

Nasrallah’s death was a huge blow to Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards established Hezbollah in 1982. It was also a blow to allied Shi’ite militias across the region, which also held him high regard.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will attend, an Iranian official said. An Iraqi delegation including senior Shi’ite politicians and militia commanders will fly to Beirut for the funeral on a presidential plane, two Iraqi lawmakers said. Yemen’s Houthis will send a senior delegation led by the Grand Mufti, Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported.

Iraqi Airways has added flights to Beirut to cope with extra demand from Iraqis who want to travel to Beirut for the funeral, a spokesperson for the Iraqi transportation ministry said.

Supporters remember him for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To his foes, he was head of an internationally designated terrorist organization and a proxy for Iran’s Shi’ite Islamist theocracy in its bid for influence in the Middle East.

After he was killed, Nasrallah was buried temporarily next to his son, Hadi, who died fighting for Hezbollah in 1997.

His official funeral was scheduled to allow time for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon under the terms of a US-backed ceasefire which ended last year’s war.

Though Israel has largely withdrawn from the south, its troops continue to hold five hilltop positions in the area.

The conflict spiraled after Hezbollah opened fire in support of its Palestinian terrorist ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war, on Oct. 8, 2023.

The post Hezbollah to Bury Long-Time Terrorist Leader Nasrallah in Mass Funeral in Lebanon first appeared on Algemeiner.com.