Hamas knew the six hostages were close to being rescued. It knew that for these six, at least, freedom was close. So Hamas blew the hostages’ brains out instead. These six hostages, two women among them, were summarily executed, shot in the head to ensure they never saw daylight or their loved ones again.

It was done in cold blood. Just as the massacre of October 7 last year was committed in cold blood. Some of you will call this justifiable resistance. You’re afflicted with a sickness that horrifies most of us.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Carmel Gat – they were taken because they were Jewish. Held captive because they were Jewish. Murdered in cold blood because they were Jewish. Because homicidal maniacs want to wipe Israel from the map and obliterate the Jewish people. Don’t be mad at me for saying so, it’s written in the Hamas charter. It’s where “From the river to the sea” can be found, many times. Go see for yourself, it’s spectacularly easy to find.
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Hamas has since confirmed what the IDF initially reported about these murders. That Hamas knew help was close, so it ordered the executions of Hersh, Eden, Carmel, Ori, Almog and Alexander. It has threatened to send more hostages home in coffins, and in the days following the executions released videos of the dead, filmed right before they were murdered. Eden had been starved. When she was shot in the head she weighed just 36kg.

This is the embodiment of evil. This is Hamas. Its members aren’t human, they are monsters.
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In all the reaction and outcry, it was the response from the Global Imams Council, the peak body representing Sunni and Shia Muslims around the world, that spoke loudest to me, at least. Its statement on Sunday clearly lays the blame for all this carnage, and not at the feet of Israel.

“We hold Hamas directly responsible for the deaths and suffering of all innocent lives lost since October 7, as their actions have not only brought death and destruction upon the region but have also led to immense suffering for the Palestinian people. Hamas’s reckless and inhumane tactics, using civilians as shields and exploiting their plight, have only escalated the cycle of violence and undermined the cause of justice and peace. Moreover, we recognise that the regime in Iran shares equal responsibility for these tragedies, as its continued support and endorsement of Hamas’s actions perpetuate violence and instability in the region.”

This is just one part of a statement that contains more moral clarity than anything our own government has said in 11 months to every simpering academic, every morally lost, intellectually lost university student parading around in a keffiyeh. Read this statement, I dare you.

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It actually doesn’t matter what anyone believes because the truth is writ large in action. You want a ceasefire? Hamas does not. You want peace? It wants bloodshed. Hamas chief and dead man walking Yahya Sinwar said so himself in hundreds of verified messages seen by The Wall Street Journal earlier in the year. He wants the blood of Palestinians to fuel his deranged power play.

You want a two-state solution? Hamas does not. I don’t understand why so many refuse to believe what Hamas openly states in its charter. No Israel, no Jews and no Christians. Hamas has rejected every offer of ceasefire since the war began. Every one.

Back in April, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept what he described as an “extraordinarily generous” ceasefire proposal from the Israelis. Of course it didn’t. And it will not.
Emma Tognini