It was inevitable. The propaganda campaign by Hamas to force its young hostages from Israel to pretend that they were treated well in captivity is coming to an end. The truth tells a different tale.
As I have said before, Hamas is winning the propaganda war. Biden is cowed by Muslim voters threatening to abandon him in the 2024 presidential election. He’s gone wobbly in his support of Israel. The hard truth is that we have a feeble old man in the White House who is unable to be the commander-in-chief. He is historically wrong on foreign policy. His underlings are running the show and a lot of them are anti-Israel. Joe Biden is only interested in winning re-election. Jill Biden isn’t ready to retire to Delaware. This is a mess, y’all.
Hamas forced the hostages to wave and smile for the media covering their release. With the release of the first group of hostages, the press reports noted that the older women were appreciative of how well they were treated by their captors. One woman gave a little hug to one of the Hamas animals and the press swooned. It was sickening. Who in their right mind would believe that that poor woman did that on her own? She was told to do that, I am quite sure, and she did it to continue the process of being released. I don’t blame her, no one should. She was in survival mode.
It was the videos of the children in the buses who were stiffly waving and gritting their teeth as they smiled that told the tale. There isn’t a parent anywhere who could watch that and think those children were happy. Propaganda. Pure evil.
The families of the hostages have been asked to remain silent on most of the details they are hearing from their loved ones. That is understandable. The Israeli officials don’t want the enemy – Iran and Hamas – to know what they know. Some of the hostages are young children and it is hard to imagine what they are suffering through, either in captivity or as they are being released.
On Tuesday, Deborah Cohen, the aunt of 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi, who was freed on Monday, told French TV Channel BFM that the terrorists forced her young nephew at gunpoint to watch raw video footage of the horrors they carried out on Oct. 7.
“It is the kind of horror film that no one wants to see,” she said. “They forced him to watch it and if he or any of the other children cried, the terrorists threatened them with a gun to keep quiet.”
Cohen also recounted how Yahalomi, who was kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack from his home on Kibbutz Nir Oz without his family, was put on the back of a motorcycle by the terrorists and driven across the breached border fence into Gaza. As they drove him through the streets there, she said, people came outside and began to jeer and beat him.
Little 4-year-old Abigail was released last weekend and that was a great moment. The first and I think only American hostage to be released, she was one of the youngest hostages. Three-year-old Israeli twins were released yesterday. Since October 7, I haven’t been able to shake the coverage of the hostages, especially the little ones. What kind of damage are they suffering? More than 50 days in dark tunnels, forced to whisper, beaten, and denied food. It’s bad enough for adults, it is unthinkable for children.
First photo from freedom of 3-year-old twins Emma and Yuli Cunio and mom Sharon after they were released from Gaza captivity.
Their dad is still held hostage, and so is their uncle and his girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/uUeKJkVEQv
— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) November 29, 2023
Instead of the usual chatter, crying, and laughing typical in pediatric wards, Dr. Yael Mozer Glassberg, a senior physician in the Department of Returned Children at the Schneider Medical Center in Tel Aviv, who is part of the specially assembled team of professionals tasked with treating the returned hostages, told Fox News Digital, “It is very, very quiet here.”
Mozer Glassberg, who usually heads the hospital’s liver transplant unit, said so far, she and her team have worked with 22 of the freed hostages, including 15 children, in a specially created ward.
While most of the returned hostages appeared to be physically stable, many lost up to 15% of their body weight during captivity, and all are afraid to raise their voices after their 50-day stay with terrorists.
Israel is being extra attentive to make sure the children are not further traumatized when they return to their loved ones. All of the hostages are taken to a medical facility for observation and any necessary medical treatment. Most of the people easing them back into the world are a team of skilled women trained in caring for the traumatized. The children are “being wrapped and hugged by family members and by the psycho-social medical team.”
It will be a very long time, if ever, before they heal.
One particularly poignant story is that of 10-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel, and 32-year-old Shiri Bibas. They were sold off to another terrorist group in Gaza. There are conflicting stories. They may have been killed in an alleged Israel air strike or it is propaganda that they have been killed. Remember the story of young Emily Hand? Her father was told she was dead but then she was released. So, the family of Shiri Bibas and her two young children remain in the dark about their loved ones.
BREAKING:? In an unverified statement Hamas claims that 10-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel, and 32-year-old Shiri Bibas, were killed in the Gaza Strip in “a Zionist airstrike”.
The IDF doesn’t confirm the Hamas statement, but says it will continue to accompany the Bibas…
— Marc Zell (@GOPIsrael) November 29, 2023
There are reports that Israel may be renewing the military campaign after six hostage exchanges. The latest is under way now: 7 children and 5 women. The restart of the Gaza operation could not come any too soon after the news that Shiri Bibas and her infant son, Kfir, and…
— Marc Zell (@GOPIsrael) November 29, 2023
Israel must be allowed to carry out its war against Hamas as it sees fit. Hamas must be destroyed. There is no other solution.
Siblings Sahar (16) and Erez (12) Kalderon were released from Gaza on Monday after being held hostage for 52 days. They didn't know each other was alive until they were reunited upon being handed over to @ICRC for transfer back to Israel.
Their father Ofer is still captive. pic.twitter.com/Lk4XCeD7Ng— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) November 29, 2023
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