See how much of this you can stomach. I managed to get through a full minute before shutting in down in disgust, but this Hamas rally using hostages and hostage bodies must be seen to be believed:

Here's a briefer look at the coffins:

Even I, who said Hamas was evil, never imagined it would parade the body of the Bibas children out in a public spectacle, in mislabeled coffins with locks that don’t open. pic.twitter.com/8ZBe1SW9qR

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) February 20, 2025

Trump may have seen enough, too. Reportedly, he told his advisors that the US and Israel need to take off the gloves:

BREAKING: Israel's Channel 14 has reported that after seeing the dead baby parade from Gaza, President Trump said to his advisors:

"I want to see Gaza wiped out; I don't want to see even one building standing."

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) February 20, 2025

So far, there hasn't been any confirmation of those remarks, so take this report with a grain of salt for now. It's not too difficult to believe, though, that Trump said that in response to this flagrant defiance from Hamas and the humiliation of the hostages and their remains. Israel has warned Hamas before about the consequences of forcing hostages to participate in grotesque ceremonies. They still haven't stopped doing it, since the previous warning came with no consequences:

Hamas has been condemned for parading the coffins of hostages in Gaza, with the United Nations rights chief saying the 'abhorrent' treatment of the October 7 attack victims 'flies in the face of international law.'

Israelis are mourning the youngest hostages - baby Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel - as well as their mother Shiri and elderly captive Oded Lifshitz, whose bodies are believed to have been inside the caskets.

The four coffins were displayed to crowds in front of disturbing propaganda posters before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by armed Hamas fighters. ...

Alongside the coffins, Hamas displayed mock munitions labelled 'They were killed by USA bombs' and a poster depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire - all part of Hamas' message that Israel was to blame for the hostages' deaths. 

The UN, which spent the last 20 years supporting Hamas and even helping them hide weapons in UNRWA facilities, wagged its finger today about "international law":

Condemning the horrific scenes, UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement that 'under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.'

Turk's a decade late and $50 billion or so short. The UN knew what Hamas was and is when it decided to partner with them in Gaza. They provided the funding and the cover for Hamas to turn Gaza into a human-shield militarized zone and allowed Hamas endless violations of "international law" without uttering a peep. Had the UN taken international law seriously, Gaza wouldn't be in ruins, and the lives of these hostages would have been uninterrupted.

And yet the same people wagging their fingers at Hamas today insist that the only solution to the conflict is to create a state in which Hamas will inevitably seize power if left to rebuild. In fact, the same voices at the United Nations insist that UNRWA return as the international body to direct that effort, despite its complete corruption by Hamas. They want a return to the status quo ante that produced the October 7 massacres and the mass rape and kidnapping that resulted in this ghastly, despicable show today in Gaza. 

Israel is again making it clear that they will not allow Hamas to control Gaza under any circumstances, and this grotesquerie shows why:

Israel’s main priority remains preventing the reemergence of an armed Palestinian force in Gaza, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar emphasized in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov. Addressing former US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s Palestinian population, Sa’ar did not explicitly endorse the plan but acknowledged its potential feasibility.

“If someone wants to emigrate and another country is willing to accept them, that is a legitimate, moral solution,” he said. However, he stressed that Israel’s main priority remains preventing the reemergence of an armed Palestinian force in Gaza.

He added that Israel will not accept a ceasefire deal that allows Hamas to maintain control of Gaza or dictates the country’s security terms. ...

“The fundamental issue is Gaza’s future—who will control it and how it will be disarmed,” he said. “Hamas is trying to replicate Hezbollah’s model in Lebanon, maintaining military dominance while outsourcing governance. That is unacceptable to us.”

It should be unacceptable to everyone. As long as Hamas remains in Gaza, a state of war will exist, no matter what Hamas promises in the short term. Hamas has broken ten cease-fire agreements with Israel and publicly proclaims its intention to annihilate it and the Jews entirely. Granting Gaza sovereignty while leaving Hamas in place is setting a fire underneath a pile of TNT.

Sa'ar went on to prescribe a "root canal" for both Gaza and the West Bank after this display:

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that the “horrific and repulsive spectacle of twisted and monstrous minds” that Hamas put on during the transfer of slain hostages in Gaza this morning is evidence that all of Palestinian society must be deradicalized from “a deep sickness.”

“It is clear that the systematic poisoning of the younger generation in Palestinian society (in Gaza just as in Judea and Samaria) is eliminating any chance for peace,” he writes on X, using the West Bank’s biblical name. “A root canal treatment is required. The Palestinian terrorist armies must be eradicated and defeated. Gaza must be completely demilitarized.”

And just in case anyone doubts this wisdom and/or the nature of Hamas, look who came to the parade:

A Palestinian terrorist responsible for killing dozens of Israelis who was released from prison just days ago was seen in media footage at the Hamas handover of bodies of four slain hostages Thursday.

Mohammed Abu Warda, a former commander in Hamas’s armed wing, was serving 48 life sentences in Israel for masterminding multiple terror attacks that killed 45 people, including a 1996 bombing on a Jerusalem bus that left 24 dead.

He was released by Israel on February 8 along with other terror convicts as part of the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.

This calls the entire strategy into question -- as should have happened after October 7. The Israelis set a high store on getting hostages back, and they pay a high price to do so. All that does is incentivize hostage-taking, and now the Israelis are paying for it with these spectacles intended to humiliate them. At some point, the Israelis have to make the price for hostaging the permanent and total defeat of Gaza and the destruction of its infrastructure until capitulation. That is the only way to end wars when one side insists on fighting for annihilation.