Some thoughts, observations, and rants about yesterday's raid that freed four Israeli hostages from Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, by Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib

Some thoughts, observations, and rants about yesterday's raid that freed four Israeli hostages from Gaza’s Nuseirat camp:

1. Right off the bat, it should go without saying at this point that we wouldn’t be here had it not been for Hamas’s criminality on October 7 and that these hostages should have never been taken or held this long. This entirely avoidable war was started by Hamas and the buck stops with them.

2. It’s been weird, strange, gross, revealing, and disappointing to see some “pro-Palestine” activists go into straight meltdown mode over the fact that Hamas no longer holds these hostages, NOT the death of numerous Palestinian civilians during the raid, but the idea that Hamas no longer has “Zionist prisoners” who have been consistently dismissed and dehumanized since October 7.

3. It’s been disgusting, upsetting, and, quite frankly, enraging to see the utter dehumanization of the Palestinian civilian losses and victims by some “pro-Israel” activists who have so little capacity for compassion and empathy that the hundreds who have been killed “are all terrorists” and that it’s somehow inconceivable for scores of uninvolved civilians to be killed by the massive firepower that the IDF deployed in Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah during the operation.

4. Numerous Palestinians in Gaza, on social media in Arabic, are fuming over the fact that Hamas placed hostages in dense civilian areas, endangering their lives and exposing them to the wrath of Israel’s ferocious war machines. “Where are the vaunted tunnels that you built using our resources and safety?” yelled a furious man in Nuseirat.

5. What Hamas has and continues to do through its use of civilian homes, areas, and infrastructure bolsters the “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza” propagandists who are eager to disregard the safety and proportionality principles in pursuit of the destruction of Hamas. Instead of separating the terror group from Gaza’s civilians, Hamas, and its supporters and allies continue the horrendous narrative of “we are the people’s resistance army” that has a right to do whatever it wants regardless of the consequences.

6. On the one hand, Israel, like any other nation, would conduct an operation to free its citizens from captivity, and what happened yesterday isn’t surprising in that regard. On the other hand, the apparent disregard for “collateral damage” or Palestinian civilian casualties is inconsistent with the Just War Doctrine or principles of counterinsurgency. When the US raided Bin Laden’s compound, care was taken to separate his family and uninvolved civilians from the combatants; this is true when attacking hijacked airplanes, seized banks, or other targets with militants, hostages, and civilians.

7. Some of the testimonies and accounts that I’ve encountered have confirmed a disturbing trend: IDF soldiers were shooting/killing upon contact with any unknown subjects. In other words, there was little to no effort to discriminate targets based on their gender, proximity to the hostages’ locations, or their possession of firearms. Yes, Hamas had those hostages in peoples’ homes, Gazans who are connected to the Islamist group. However, Hamas’s operational security protocols likely ensured that most civilians in the immediate vicinity/proximity had no idea that hostages were being held there; this means there truly were innocent, uninvolved civilians near the hostages who, for no fault of their own, were eliminated by the IDF.

8. There’s absolutely no real and substantive evidence, beyond Aljazeera’s ridiculous innuendo, that the US humanitarian pier was used to bring in Israeli troops to stage the operation or that the pier facilitated the movement of vehicles. The IDF has the Netzarim Corridor that it could use to bring all sorts of equipment, decoys, and materials. The use of the flat area adjacent to the pier for the evacuation helicopter’s takeoff is not evidence that the pier itself was used for the operation. It goes without saying that the US and Israel have extensive intelligence cooperation (just like many Arab countries and Israel have), and I wouldn’t be surprised if some surveillance assets were part of the reconnaissance that preceded the operation.

9. Those who did not call on Hamas to release the hostages; who dehumanized Israeli hostages and captives, calling them “prisoners of war” and thinking that they’re legitimate spoils of war; those who celebrated October 7 as resistance and cheered on Hamas; those who championed the armed resistance narrative: you own part of this! This is partly on you! Yes, your ignorance, arrogance, short-sidedness, inhumanity, and grift got us here. Imagine if the entirety of the pro-Palestine movement, in unison, called for the release of Israeli hostages, or at the very least, the women, children, elderly, and the dead. Imagine if Hamas faced this popular/public/moral pressure and realized that its actions are profoundly unpopular and despised and that it had to concede to protect its people and not lose the narrative. But no, you went along with the disaster, and now you’re upset that your beloved terror group is continuing to get the Palestinians annihilated.

10. Those who did not push for a ceasefire/hostage deal, who dehumanized the people of Gaza, and who are blinded by rage, hate, and a desire for revenge; those who do not view the Palestinians as people worthy of life or basic liberty and are unwilling to register Israel’s role in the unfolding catastrophe, including by supporting Hamas for years and letting its rule fester: you own this and are part of this catastrophe! And not only that, but you are despicably and inhumanly mocking hundreds of deaths and saying they’re all Hamas, they’re all this or that, without the slightest ability to have empathy. I’m not saying don’t rejoice in the freeing of the hostages, but to completely dismiss the horrific and unbelievably high cost involved in liberating them reeks of prejudice, inhumanity, and heartlessness.

I really am glad that Noa Argamani can see her dying mother, Liora, one last time. I hope for the immediate and expedient release of all Israeli hostages. But at what cost? Palestinian lives matter too – they really do.