Israel is considering adopting a new policy toward Hamas to try to prevent the terror group from harming the remaining hostages in Gaza amid the IDF’s resumption of airstrikes, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday evening.
Israel is to threaten Hamas that any harm to a hostage will be met with the annexation of territory from the Gaza Strip.
The understanding in Israel is that the loss of territory is what scares Hamas the most, even more than the loss of life.
The report added that Israel has conveyed to the mediators that it will not compromise on anything less than the Witkopf plan for the release of the hostages, meaning the release of at least half of the hostages in exchange for an extension of the ceasefire.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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Annexation would mean making Gaza residents into Israeli citizens. A better threat would be not to allow and rebuilding of permanent structures until all hostages are released and until Hamas turns over those responsible for murder and rape of civilians and POWs.
It should be remembered that there is at least a 50% chance of the Democrats winning the 2028 election, in which case aid to Israel will be cut off and there will be serious sanctions (e.g. American Jews could be prosecuted for contributing to Israeli charities, or even for visiting). Hamas only has to hold for four more years (or until the Democrats return to power), and they have won.
This was actually Ed Koch’s idea, he said anytime there was a terrorist attack, Israel should annex a certain amount of territory.
Why only half of the hostages? What kind of nonsense is this? They should release ALL 59 hostages, the living and the dead!!!