The hostages are free!

I cannot see how people in Gaza can cope. However, when there is life there is hope, lets pray a plan comes up to rebuild.

The people in Gaza are still in a dire situation. There is not enough aid coming in. Many don't have tents and aid agencies worry for children as winter is coming and there is no shelter.
I am glad for the Israeli hostages who have returned home but have not forgotten the terrible plight the Gazan people are still in.

The released Hamas hostages will get medical care and family support, and so it should be.
The released Palestinians? Some don't even have homes now.

Artemis47

Yes it is good news but please let us not forget the Palestinian families who have also been waiting for the release of their loved ones, detained in Israeli prisons without trial for months and years.

They do tend to be forgotten by some sadly.

Yes it is good news but please let us not forget the Palestinian families who have also been waiting for the release of their loved ones, detained in Israeli prisons without trial for months and years.

Casdon

Tunnels are not immune to bombs Anniebach, and we don’t actually know that all the hostages were kept in tunnels anyway? Once the survivor stories are released we may understand more about the situation on the ground for them.

I remember a radio documentary, a Gaza inhabitant said they were paid to look after a hostage in their home. They said they would use the money to pay for their exit from Gaza.

One of the bodies sent back to Israel was not a hostage.

Thank you foxie48, Hamas released this info today ?

" Forensic authorities in Gaza have started the identification process of 45 bodies of Palestinians that Israel released on Tuesday as part of the ceasefire deal, according to the health ministry. Israel is expected to transfer more bodies, though the total number has not been announced.

Israel handed over the bodies through the Red Cross without identification, the Associated Press (AP) reports. It was not immediately known if they were Palestinians who died in Israeli prisons or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli troops. During the war, the Israeli military has exhumed bodies as part of its search for the remains of hostages."

Today's Guardian

Tunnels are not immune to bombs Anniebach, and we don’t actually know that all the hostages were kept in tunnels anyway? Once the survivor stories are released we may understand more about the situation on the ground for them.

We’re the hostages not imprisoned in the tunnels .

If Israel kept bodies as Gaza did, why was return of Palestinian bodies not part of the ceasefire .?

ronib

Not wishing to sound arrogant but we may never know why so many hostages were killed. The dead cannot speak? Hamas won’t explain. mum2three

I suspect it will be possible to work out what happened to most of them through forensics. I also don’t think Hamas can release all the bodies yet, because some of them are buried under rubble and the bodies will have to be located first. Only when everybody missing is found and the forensics are completed will it possible to identify who was killed by Hamas and who died as an unintended result of Israeli fire. I doubt if that level of detail will be released though.

Not wishing to sound arrogant but we may never know why so many hostages were killed. The dead cannot speak? Hamas won’t explain. mum2three

Presumably the hostages will now be giving their accounts of what happened. It will be interesting to know how they were treated while in captivity and why so many of them died.

Saw that ronib. He has not walked away yet.

Condemned, so much of it to be condemned, and held to account in the International Courts.
Takes a while.

Sadly, it could be that some of those poor folk may have been alive at the start of the siege.
Posters here may know about that.

Escaped I understand there's been a long history of keeping dead bodies on both sides of this conflict. Unfortunately it's not just been by the terrorist group, the Israeli government has also kept the bodies of Palestinians who have died in their prisons. They have been used for bargaining purposes. Just dreadful and disgusting behaviour on both sides and to be utterly condemned.

Trump suggests that he will have stage 2 so I don’t know if Hamas has taken the repercussions of not complying on board. Whatever they may be.

ronib

escaped I posted on another thread that Hamas may be using delays in return of the bodies as a stalling tactic. Hamas could be using this time to conceal weapons or simply to delay getting to stage 2 of the peace agreement.

That’s what I think too, it’s their modus operandi.

escaped I posted on another thread that Hamas may be using delays in return of the bodies as a stalling tactic. Hamas could be using this time to conceal weapons or simply to delay getting to stage 2 of the peace agreement.

Oreo

BN and government thought it best at the time to give support to hamas to lesson the power of the PA.Checks and balances.
Nobody can predict the future and how things will turn out.

Netanyahu is recorded as saying his reason for letting Hamas gain more power was to counterbalance Fatah because a divided Palestine was less likely to be successful in progressing it's claim for a two state solution. Not "checks and balances," political interference for a right wing Israeli government's political aims which put left wing Israelis, who lived near to Gaza and had forged strong links with Gazans, at greater risk.

What I don't understand is why Hamas took dead bodies as hostages in the first place? Surely they knew that they would have to hand them back, so why did they transport their corpses to Gaza at all?

Oreo

Victim blaming much foxie48 !

Please explain your comment

Oreo

Primrose53

All thanks to Donald Trump.

Yes definitely!

Don't forget the contributions from Blair, Mandelson and Starmer!