Yossi Schwartz, ISL – the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 27.11.2023
Hamas has handed over 13 Israeli captives and four Thai nationals to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) after a delay of seven hours as Hamas says that Israel had violated two of the terms of a truce.
The first one is the breach of the agreement that Israel will release women and children according to the principle of seniority – those who sat longer were released first. Israel of course claims that Hamas is to blame as it enjoys psychological torture of the Israelis.
Yet it is not difficult to know who is lying. First of all, Israel does not show the written agreement not to the families waiting for their relatives to be freed which is really a form or torture for them. It does not show the agreement to the Zionist reporters who, like parrots, repeat the line of the government. If they saw the agreement, they did not report it.
However, one of the reporters of channel 12 of the Israeli TV said on Saturday night that the agreement specifies that Israel will release the women and children from the Israeli prisons according to the principle of seniority.
It is also known that Israel breached the agreement on Friday and only under pressure and a promise by the Qataris that Israel will correct the breach of the agreement in the next exchange of prisoners on Saturday. Israel announced on Saturday night that only Israel will decide whom to release.
It is also known that Hamas already on Saturday morning announced that Israel breached the agreement and it will not accept it. The Qataris reported it on Saturday noon and Israel ignored it. In addition, Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan had said earlier that the aid deliveries permitted by Israel had fallen short of what had been promised and were not reaching northern Gaza, which was the target of Israel’s offensive.
“Only 65 of 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza, which was “less than half of what Israel agreed on”, Hamdan said from Beirut” [1]
It is not difficult to know who is lying. It is enough to know whose interest is to end the Humanitarian pause, that is a small victory for Hamas. Israel was forced under pressure especially of Biden who faced a mass opposition to his backing of the genocide of the Palestinians, to agree to the pause. The end of this pause will give the Zionist butchers to continue with their genocide. In addition, trucks carrying aid to the north of Gaza are against the Zionist policy and the Zionist butchers already are shooting Palestinians who try to return to the North to try and save their own relatives buried under the destroyed buildings.
“Footage from the West Bank and East Jerusalem showed crowds welcoming and cheering the arrival of 50 women and children released from jail. This despite National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir instructing police in East Jerusalem to prevent celebrations of the releases. Some images show mounted police officers using force to disperse the crowd” [2]
The released inmates included the freedom fighter Israa Jaabis, 38, who was convicted of detonating a gas cylinder in her car at a West Bank checkpoint in 2015, wounding a police officer, and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Down with the Zionist butchers!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/25/hamas-releases-thirteen-israeli-captives-after-hours-long-delay-qatar-confirms
[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-frees-2nd-batch-of-palestinian-security-inmates-received-by-celebrating-crowds/