Public sentiment regarding the Gaza conflict is overwhelmingly negative, characterized by strong frustrations towards both Hamas and Israeli leadership. Commenters express deep concern for humanitarian issues, skepticism about political resolutions, and a desire for immediate accountability and peace. Many highlight the suffering of innocent civilians, emphasize the urgent need for humanitarian aid, and condemn the ongoing violence, indicating a complex and polarized view of the situation.

Hamas

Israeli Government

International Community

You don't retroactively turn hostages into POWs because they're men, wtaf

Tricky-Anything8009

Basically, a prisoner of war is a soldier who was captured when they were in active duty and engaged in warfare or related supporting tasks.

If a soldier is captured when they are off duty, they are not considered prisoners of war but hostages.

PoudreDeTopaze

All of them are hostages and holding them is a grave violation of human rights and IHL, which should excuse Israel to violate IHL as they please in the eyes of the international community. Cause I see no point for selective enforcement of IHL. 

But Israel doesnt violate IHL anyway. Too westernized for that.

babidygoo

Mostly all the hostages were taken from home, Unless the individual was on active duty they are legally classed as civilians under international law and unless the individual took up arms then they are no way classed a combatant which almost non of them were. It's better to die than to be captured and that's way of life in the IDF "על קידוש השם" al kiddush hashem, sanctification of the name, it's better to bring honor to G-d and the Jewish people than to be captured and tortured, not a lot of active duty soldiers were even taken and if you haven't seen any of the media pieces the ones that were captured were executed tied up in a tunnel and lined up and shot then beheaded on their base during the initial incursion. The hostages are civilians and they were taken for the core purpose of stalling the Israeli counterattack and providing themselves a scapegoat in the same way a home invader would take hostages upon law enforcement arrival.

Pretend-Spread4839

That is absurd and dehumanizing. 

"I killed or captured a soldier while they were at home watching TV during a time when there wasn't even war so I killed or captured a military target" is absurd. Those soldiers still count as civilians because there was **NO WAR DECLARED OR FOUGHT IN 2023 UNTIL AFTER OCT 7TH.**

AsaxenaSmallwood04

If true, they’d almost certainly be entitled to POW status. POW status provides broad protections under international humanitarian laws.

Only issue here is that international law hasn’t been enforced against either side of this mess.

spinek1

War Captives, or Prisoners of War are entitled to certain protections and rights.

Israeli captives are being treated as hostages not prisoners of war.

Jaded-Form-8236

They were no held in prisons but in different houses, probably hoping Israel would not bomb the houses because the hostages were in. 

[LEAKED ISRAELI DOCS: World Views Israel As 'Genocidal Apartheid'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlW9ry-QRck&amp;ab_channel=BreakingPoints)

PLUTO_HAS_COME_BACK

Not all of them are soldiers. Also they have not been given POW status, which comes with certain rights that have not been fulfilled. Its my understanding that some of these soldiers have been murdered, which is illegal to do to POWs. The purpose of taking a soldier as prisoner of war is not to punish the soldier. So while a majority of the living hostages may meet the legal definition of POW, they are not being treated as such.

ZachorMizrahi

If they were active duty, arguably yes. If they were formally on leave at the time, then no they were captured in their capacity as civilians.

WeAreAllFallible

They are captives. Everyone on both sides are captives. Some are captive civilians (hostages), some are POW. Only grey area is that in Israel military aged men are reservists, but international law says they are civilian if captured hors de combat, unless they engaged in fighting then they become POWs. Both parties lie a lot to justify kidnapping random men and boys and calling them POWs

Critter-Enthusiast

It really depends on your perspective.

From the Palestinian perspective they’ve been at war since ‘48 and Israelis are required to serve so every hostage is a prisoner of war.

From the Israeli perspective they are all civilians since they didnt realize they were at war and most were in their homes or at a music festival when they were taken.

This also explains every call for a “ceasefire” instead of a surrender.

Dry-Leave2003

Applying legal definitions to an organization which doesn’t respect the legal framework they are based on makes no logical sense.

knign

all are captives because hamass is an illegal terrorist organization that doesn't follow the laws of war

LongjumpingEye8519

Some qualify as prisoners of war with all the rights that entails, others-like civilians kidnaped- are being held unlawfully, full stop.

hellomondays

Omri Miran is a middle aged father.

He was taken captive from his home. Hamas terrorists came to his house with his teenage neighbor, whom they threatened to kill if he didn’t open the door of his safe room.

Is that what you call a POW?

andicuri_09

Some are captured soldiers, but many are still civilians. Including a number of young men kidnapped from the Nova music festival.

Thunder-Road

Yes, they are all soldiers who were captured in combat. Israelis won't admit this. To them all Palestinian hostages are prisoners, even if a quarter of them are under age, and even if Israels own reporting says over 3/4 are non-combatants. 

exegenes1s

Nadiveamerican000

So, the answer is no, they are still hostages. This is because the Israel–Hamas conflict is legally a non-international armed conflict and Hamas cannot confer POW status. 

Under Common Article 3 and customary IHL, all remaining Israelis — soldiers or civilians — are considered hostages, and their detention constitutes a war crime.

Throwawaydpp420420

On a moral level it really doesn’t matter. Too many discussions nowadays get too legalistic, as if the law determines what is right.

Crymmt

Lumpy-Cost398

It doesn't really matter. If they are hostages, it's a war crime. If they are POWs, it's still a war crime due to their treatment and lack of access to NGOs.

But also, Hamas doesn't count as lawful combatants. Even if they are a "resistance movement," which they are not, but to be considered lawful, the resistance movement must be part of a conflict, have a clear chain of command, **carry arms openly, wear a uniform or distinctive sign, and operate under the laws of war**.

So what Hamas has done is not different from what organized crime does.

TheTrollerOfTrolls

They are soldiers so the answer is clear.

pol-reddit

It is wild that people are bending over backwards to justify war crimes. These are the same people that are constantly demanding we find Israel guilty in the court of public opinion, instead of a court of law.

KvetchAndRelease

&gt; What's ur take on this?

My take is that this is a shit take meant only to diminish/revise the fact that there r innocent people starving to death in tunnels, subject to constant physical and sexual abuse, and whose lives r in the hands of the genocidal terrorists who murdered their families *still after 700 days.*

KlackTracker

Yes they’re all adult male IDF members/reservists. 

MAGA_Trudeau

The war is horrible, so many children and families lost and trapped

https://gofund.me/8d18d56b1

Icy_Data8895

How are they shields if Israel bombs them anyway? If there's one Hamas terrorist hiding in a school full of children or a hospital full civilians Israel will carpet bomb them regardless. They don't care about Palestinian civilians whatsoever

more than 20,000 children were killed in Gaza during the first 23 months of the 2023–present war alone.

rxfh0926

What human shields! Israel bombed them anyway. 

[Last churches in Gaza say they will not evacuate](https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/last-churches-in-gaza-say-they-will-not-evacuate) 

[LEAKED ISRAELI DOCS: World Views Israel As 'Genocidal Apartheid'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlW9ry-QRck&amp;ab_channel=BreakingPoints)

&gt;Pro-Pales, do you have any excuses for this?

Why would we, we are not in favor of Smotrich's Asset.

And yet you should not bomb civilians.

&gt;If you care about Palestinians, you have to support the elimination of Hamas.

We are certainly against Smotrich's Asset, the problem is, if to eliminate it you have to kill every palestinian that does not want to be dislodged from their country that's not an acceptable strategy.

&gt;Anything less will just expose you as antisemites who use Palestinians' deaths to justify your hatred of Jews.

Y'all really love strawmanning, don't you?

Grexxoil

There are many in Israel that want to take all the land, for the ones in power, it's all about the land, they will say otherwise, but Israel has been taking land on a regular basis for years and years,the IDF have killed many, but make far more terrorists than they kill, as they have family's and they will hate the IDF with there dieing breath, for the world doing things like double tapping a hospital, for a camera,.... Israel has destroyed any good relationships with the world.
Israel set a target, that the only way of doing it is to kill everyone, take the land, and hope the world does not take the land.

Kraken113

Peace and democracy? C’mon dude. Likud is Hamas with kippas

Throwaway547822

Bibi is using them as human shields for his coalition. He's as despicable as Hamas.

beraleh

Pro pali dose t mean pro Hamas,pro pali means alot of diffrent things,a pro pali can also be a pro 2 state,a pro pali can also be a pro one state,a pro pali can also be just sympathetic for the palistinian people,don't just assume that every pro isreali is an zionesy hollagon that goes around screaming propaganda and supports the idf and don't think that every pro palistinian is a person who goes and does bomb attacks on random civilians because they looked armed enough

beardfullresident

&gt;Pro-Pales, do you have any excuses for this?

Prioritise getting the hostages back, peace and a ceasefire. Netanyahu is a war monger who is kept in power by the conflict, he has no interest in peace or the hostages.

Can you practically expect the hostages to be kept anywhere other than with the fighter, this isn't to excuse the fact there they are hostages but its a practical reality.

&gt;The goal now is the elimination of Hamas and the deradicalizing of Palestinians

I would say Israel also needs deradicalising, the rhetoric of the far right and their supporters is very similar to that from Hamas. Its a horrendous state when you have mothers calling for even children to be killed.

[deleted]

The only people thinking that the Jerusalem post is a credible source are Zionists. End of story.

mxk3_

They've never hidden it. If people are bothered enough they can find videos and interviews from years ago of mothers praying for their sons to become martyrs. There are Associated Press videos of human shields in action running to militants homes after Israel have fired their "roof knock".

Fit_Membership_9097

Did an IDF spokesperson make this post lol

Acceptable_Tea281


When did it become Genocide ? Day two ? Day two hundred ?

I really don’t know. Does the ratio of deaths between the Israelis and Palestinians factor into it ?

Perhaps it’s the number of deaths and how they were committed but does this start only after a certain threshold ?

Is it seen as Genocide when the side with all the deaths are not fighting back, equally fighting back ?

There has never been a war like this where one side hides in tunnels under a civilian population so should the leaders be brought up on war crimes ? Will the laws change as a result of this method of warfare ?

Vegetable-Living-590

Tactically the worst move Hamas could have ever done and will be written in history.  Literally destroyed any hope of sovereignty for at least 2 generations

StuffNo353

Just - - off
Stop this genocide Israel.
Stop this famine Israel.
Stop this war Israel.
Stop Netanyahu, Israel.

Oud_play

I mean, can we talk about the fact that one hostage's body was returned without a head? Another woman weighted 36 kg when she was returned? Another one died from a heart attack mid torture because he was a suspected pilot (he had a tattoo of an eagle)? Another one was beaten to a bloody pulp? Dare I even name Shani Louk? The Bibas children were killed with bare hands, while their mother was replaced with a corpse of a Gazan woman? (She was later returned). Hamas was poking a sleeping bear for decades now, and I don't care about your conspiracy theories, who gave money to whom, October 7th was designed for two purposes only: blind, merciless slaughter of civilians and hostage taking. But don't worry, Qatar and Iran will pay. One day.

Used_Combination_272

What the article actually says: Hey, we'll do our best to protect the hostages' lives, but we wanted you to know that they're living under the exact same fucked up, shitty conditions as the rest of us, so maybe keep that in mind the next time you're aimlessly bombing around. 

What OP makes of it: Hamas admits to using the hostages as human shields! 

You can't make this up.

theonewhoknocks9690

Sparklyprincess32

Update... Abu Obeida is done-zo. Finally. Or, so I hear.

More_Panic331

I can’t believe Israel supporters IQ is so low They they don’t yet understand That We aren’t  against them taking revenge Against Hamas we are against them Killing the innocent civilians 😂If  you aren’t skilled enough to take them Without the 8:1 Hamas to innocent civilians killing ratio then don’t its your skill issue.any country with half the aid That you receive will get the job done But of course jews traditions is to marry from cousins and related family members Resulting in low IQ they are just Clowns in fancy suits customized by the US they are nothing without our taxes

Far_Teacher7908

I mean the IDF have been using weapons against these people they cannot defend against for decades. They have rationed their water, food, and electricity. They wonder why young Palestinians are willing to sign up for such an extreme group? Imagine watching a loved one starved or dehydrated to death by an enemy who uses weapons your people cannot acquire to fight back. I don’t agree with Hamas or their extreme tactics, but I also have never experienced their desperation. How the whole world watched and supported 2 million people experiencing apartheid type treatment while being denied independence.

Sad_Wishbone_1524

 why do palestinians have israelie hostages?

Puzzled-Software5625

How have you guys all convinced yourselves that killing someone being used as a human shield is entirely the fault of the bad guy and the one who actually did the killing is totally innocent? 

nexxwav

They've always admitted it.  Even before October 7th, their use of human shields has been very consistent and documented.  It's one of the most long-running facts of the conflict's past few decades, and people who deny it are deluding themselves.

LettuceBeGrateful

BirdButtons

Israel has Mossad's headquarters right next to civilians. Same thing. Hamas was created by Israel, end of.

aaronespro

They’ve both trended on my social media. Mainstream media here in the US — Fox, CNN, and so on — are also at least as sympathetic towards Israel as they are towards Gazans. To say that only starving Gazans are “trending” and imply a double standard just isn’t true, at least when it comes to mainstream news sources. 

Also, if Gazans are starving, it makes sense that hostages being held by Gazans would also be starving. Anyway, I wish the best to everyone suffering from this ongoing war….

OkMud7664

I have never heard the Nariah story, it’s wild, you maybe can understand how pre high speed internet this could happen, but the fact that in the age of information we allow ourselves to be tricked by such blatant misinformation says something about technology and the human mind (hint, it’s not the former that misuses the later)

The starving Israeli hostage does trend. I saw it and I think it's horrifying, they should release Evyatar David and the rest of the prisoners. This doesn't justify what Israel is doing and has been doing to Gaza. The better question to ask is: why do you feel so compelled to take a "side" in this conflict?

recallingmemories

I think one of the main problems with news stories on all sides these days is, with the media landscape so partisan, and the liberal use of AI around us every day we, as a society, simply don't know what is true and what is not.  I know it has affected me deeply.  I think this is the first rung to fall in the potential collapse of civilized society.  I hope I'm wrong.

You seem to agree with the rest of humanity that systematic starving of innocent people is completely wrong. But you seem more upset about 1 particular person you have been shown rather than numerous reports from humanitarian doctors about 1000s of young children in a similar state of starvation but this one person is what you are more upset about. What is different about this one person? I think I can take a guess!

oswaldbuzzington

This sub has gone off the rails. If you honestly don't think that there is an issue with what is happening in Gaza, which EVERY well respected NGO has acknowledged, PLUS an Israeli scholar whose specialty is genocide, and now you are all talking about deep fakes? Carry on folks, but you are on the wrong side of history.

MaisieDay

The unstated premise of the OP is that one starving Israeli hostage is exactly as significant as hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinian children.  Don't misunderstand me, I don't think starving EITHER him or them is cool - but I do try to maintain some semblance of proportionality in my assessments.

ObservationMonger

Firstly, a starving hostage vs starving 2 Million people are not morally equivalent things. 

Secondly, what does Israel expect to happen when the hostages are amongst the population they starve, why would Hamas prioritise feeding the hostages?

Thirdly, it's not staged, just about every humanitarian organisations and government is aware of the starvation in Gaza. Stop peddling the zionazi lies and propaganda.

TheeBigBadDog

&gt;I have seen countless posts on the defensive saying that tens of thousands of children are in the state of deliberate, abject starvation, on the brink of death. And yet the poster child for this is a solitary photo of a young boy who is wracked with wasting from his cerebral palsy, and inadequate related care. He has a perfectly healthy older brother, who you can see in the non-staged photos. Yet for the purposes of propaganda, they remove his diaper, put him in a plastic garbage bag, crop out his healthy brother, and then post-process the photo in bleak shades like they are trying to win a Pulitzer (link again, and another). He is then paraded around as the encapsulation of the deliberate famine of Gaza.

Lol. Based and skeptical pilled.

ShivasRightFoot

your post is a false equivalence. one starving hostage vs the  genocide of an entire people in progress. they are starving. Children. Children are innocent.  And you try to shame us for thinking that is more outrage worthy?  JFC.

mickeyaaaa

I think we all know why. One fits the dominant media narrative about Gaza, the other doesn't.

This is what dehumanization looks like. You manage to emphasize with the hostages but not with the Gazans.


Shame on you

A_random_otter

I can't tell if this post is some really dark satire or just profoundly ignorant.

McRattus

Has Sam really become this cognitively dissonant to turn his schtick into an IDF circlejerk?

NotEeUsername

The starving child is in plain sight, the hostages can’t be seen. Easy math.

electron_c

Yeah a starving child trends because its a child.  I mean, in almost every context a crime against a child is covered more and more harshly than an adult in a similar circumstance.

I also don't know why you would think hostages are going to starve, if you're going to starve the region...

Neowarcloud

The two sides hate each other.  This is true and obvious.

They both use this " you did this so we did this". This is true and obvious.

Western universities have taught and drilled into its students: " This side is suffering more at the moment,  demonize the other side". This is true and obvious.

Currently,  October 7, 2023 is a new level of the catalyst,  it went beyond the pale.  This is true and obvious.

One side has the capabilty to wipe the other side out COMPLETELY militarily but has not done so.  Other side has said if they had the means they would wipe the other out COMPLETELY. This is true and obvious.

This has been going on a long long time. This is true and obvious.

After all this time,  isn't it true and obvious that for this to be done once and for all,  one side has to be utterly defeated where there is no other choice but to take the loss,  settle it and end this bullshit once and for all?  At this point,  this feels like the only way this all ends and this killing on both sides end.

papercutpete

Bullshit. It was on every news station and newspaper as a top story. It is trending.

And for you to say that there is no starvation in Gaza is bullshit. I don't know if widespread famine has set in -- although it seems to have-- but there should be exactly ZERO instances of food insecurity where Israel has control.

Flimsy_Caramel_4110

I still don't understand why people with genetic diseases are being used (sometimes without even making acknowledgment of the condition) as evidence of widespread starvation, was that the same evidentiary standard the international media used when reporting on the famine that Hamas's Iranian backed allies the Houthis caused in Yemen?

GeneralMuffins

Probably because they are starving for the same reason - Israel. Israel is blocking all food, water, medicine, formula from getting into Gaza. That means the hostages starve and go without medication too.

ExaggeratedSnails

u/TheAJx

Why exactly is this genocide-denial Zionist post still up while you keep sending pro-Palestine posts to the obscure "Politics and Current Events" thread?

The bias and cherrypicking in this sub that's supposedly grounded on rationality and freethinking is insanely transparent 🤨

melow_shri

Because people are gullible and believe the pa’s/the media propaganda.

Rmantootoo

Gaza is going to become for Sam Harris what Pol Pot was for Chomsky.

atrovotrono

Just to clarify, you think people in Gaza have adequate food at the moment or not?

IgnominiousOx

The reality is there will always be propaganda on both sides of any conflict and history is very much written by the winners. The actual truth almost always lies somewhere in the middle. 

What makes the Gaza conflict a somewhat unique war (in the context of propaganda) is Isreal won’t actually allow independent journalists in to establish something at least approaching a somewhat objective narrative. 

Regardless of how Pro-Israel somebody is; anybody with even the slightest bit of critical thinking skills will have made the assumption that Israel do not want the object truth of what is occurring in Gaza to be revealed to the world. 

Maybe there is no starvation. Maybe every innocent death can be directly attributed to Hamas. Maybe the IDF are indeed the most moral army to ever exist. Maybe the vast majority of people on the planet that have turned against Israel are morally confused simpletons that have been manipulated by all those nefarious Palestinian propagandists that have somehow infiltrated governments, humanitarian organisations and media outlets across the world. Maybe. 

However until and unless Israel actually allow proper on the ground reporting to occur it’s hardly surprising that the default position for most people is now that Israel cannot be trusted to accurately relay the facts to the wider world. 

It’s very common in this sub hear the statement that all that needs to happen for the atrocities to end is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. Likewise all Israel needs to do(if they are indeed conducting the war in the exceptionally moral manner they and Sam persistently claim to be) is to let international journalists in. And yet they won’t. You certainly don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder why this is.

Crafty_Letter_1719

Yeah it's a common dishonest trick, it's really stupid because it undermines the truth they're trying to report. Like when that article came out showing "kids in cages" in ICE detention centers under Trump, yet they used a picture from when Obama was in office. I'm sure they could find a picture of the truth, but they chose the one that's the most jarring, even if it's a little dishonest. Then people find out the source of the image and feel lied to - then they think the whole article is false. 

I went out with a girl who worked at a news station, a few times she had to get images ready for a news broadcast later that night. She pulled photos that fit the story from a database of images, but they weren't about that exact event. She had to get it done quickly. They basically use stock images that are relevant to current events/themes. It wasn't even dishonest, it was just the realistic way to pull together content to run a story.

  
To your second point - I think I've gotten the most accurate representation of life in Gaza by following random Gazans on Instagram. One guy is gymrat\_in\_gaza. Just a \~20 year old kid who started posting work out content before Oct 7th, then it basically turned into documenting regular life as a Gazan during the war. It's really eye opening. 

Another guy I followed on IG who was planting a tree in Gaza everyday until the end of the way died in an israeli airstrike. He was close friends with the gymrat\_in\_gaza guy. 

You see this guy lose a shit ton of weight. He's trying to put on muscle so he's trying to get his calories up and protein in - he absolutely can't, and is paying huundreds of dollars for bags of flour. Look at the crowds at the aid stations.  It is very clear that people are starving. Then you've got the IDF and Netanyahu claiming no starvation is happening. I see it. 

Also I know a couple guys who were in the IDF. Talking to them about this is shocking. Idk how common their attitude is, but they're 100% genocidal. Openly.

gmahogany

&gt;why is it controversial to bring this up?

Yeah, if I posted this to Facebook, I'd be defriended by at least 3-4 people, who would all assume I didn't care about Palestinian lives. It reminds me of something Sam or one of his guests said in the 2020-era about BLM: when you discover that a talking point is hyperbolic to the point of being misinformation, and you research and find out the Good News that it simply isn't true, and you joyfully attempt to spread that Good News, you are confronted with the fact that activists and tribalists don't want Good News. They refuse to believe Good News and actively bury it. They will attack spreaders of Good News. 

Granted, as Haviv Rettig Gur recently said, Israel really has made the mistake of allowing widespread *hunger*, and unwisely played chicken with Hamas, knowing that despite delivering and allowing to be delivered what amounts to technically enough calories for the population, that food is not being evenly distributed, is not getting to all of the people, and that fact hurts Israel more than it hurts Hamas. It is a strategic blunder not to flood Gaza with an abundance of aid, not only for humanitarian reasons, but for strategic reasons. Israel is not technically trying to starve anyone, and starvation is not technically a real issue for the large Gaza population, but the unfortunate situation is that the wealthy and the powerful in Gaza are allowing the poor to experience real hunger, which also affects the sickly who are most sensitive to hunger. And Western Media is too fucking stupid to see through Hamas propaganda, or too fucking greedy for clicks to actually care. 

Problem is, if you flood Gaza with an abundance of aid, it also helps Hamas to hold onto hostages who they will not feed well, and when is the last time you saw outrage about that on a major subreddit? It's been interesting, by the way, seeing the new comment statistics that Reddit is releasing. Some of my Gaza comments get less than 50% engagement from the U.S., and quite large engagement from places like Egypt. Posts, likewise, have a surprising number of shares (not crossposts), even when (especially when?) they are downvoted below zero.

palsh7

Because they are children. It’s a good thing that people are more empathetic toward children,otherwise, humanity might face extinction even sooner.

an_amber99

Historical-Piece7771

Great to see you agree that starving anyone is unacceptable

-fly_away-

Tribalgeoff_UK

I mean, that guys lost huge amounts of body weight for the same reason the kids are. 

Children are viewed as uniquely innocent, so they get more empathy quickly

creg316

“As someone who has long believed in Israel’s right to exist and supported a two-state solution, I want to make clear—to anyone who cares to listen—our band’s condemnation of Netanyahu’s immoral actions and to join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides,” Bono writes. 

Onstage at Sphere Las Vegas on October 7–8, while mourning Hamas’s attack on Israel, including the Nova music festival, the lead singer of u/u2 writes that he wasn’t thinking about politics. “I just couldn’t help but express the pain everyone in the room was feeling and is still feeling for other music lovers and fans like us—hiding under a stage in Kibbutz Re’im then butchered to set a diabolical trap for Israel and to get a war going that might just redraw the map ‘from the river to the sea,’” Bono writes.

Over the months that followed, Israel’s revenge for the Hamas attack “appeared more and more disproportionate and disinterested in the equally innocent civilian lives in Gaza,” Bono writes. “I hoped Israel would return to reason. I was making excuses for a people seared and shaped by the experience of Holocaust, who understood the threat of extermination not simply as a fear but as a fact.” 

“But I also understood that Hamas is not the Palestinian people,” Bono continues. “Palestinians have for decades endured and continue to endure marginalization, oppression, occupation, and the systematic stealing of the land that is rightfully theirs. Given our own historic experience of oppression and occupation in Ireland, it’s little wonder so many here have campaigned for decades for justice for the Palestinian people.”  


Images of starving children in Gaza brought Bono back to a 1985 working trip to a food station in Ethiopia—where, he writes, he witnessed chronic malnutrition up close. “We know Hamas is using starvation as a weapon in the war, but now so too is Israel, and I feel revulsion for that moral failure,” Bono continues at the link in our bio. “The government of Israel is not the nation of Israel, but the government of Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, deserves our categorical and unequivocal condemnation.”

Read more: [https://theatln.tc/fP2lMXKt](https://theatln.tc/fP2lMXKt) 

— Katie Anthony, associate editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*

theatlantic

There HAD been a ceasefire on October 6th of 2023.  
I wonder who broke it.  
While I don't hold Palestineans wholly responsible for Hamas' actions, the fact is that Hamas IS supported by the majority of Palestineans. Most Palestineans do NOT support a two state solution, most Palestineans don't support Jews existing in our homeland to begin with and every time some peaceful settlement is reached, its not the Israelis who reignite tensions.

Cultural-Flow7185

Not Israel and Gaza. Gaza. Israel has built a first world nation because they want to live. The Palestinians agendas were different.

user6161616

West Bank is all anyone needs to see to show that Israel was never interested in any real peace, they even funded Hamas to make it easier to disunite the Palestinians. Whether you are moderate or radical Israel's goal was always to ethnically cleanse the area.

Trefeb

Really they're not wrong.

I know reasonable people who were born in Israel.  I know reasonable people who were born in Palestine.  What they have in common is they looked at the situation and decided to get out by any means necessary.

When all of the non-fundamentalists with any options on both side of a conflict realize they can make a better life for themselves and their children somewhere else, what's left?

Hartastic

The real problem is the politics of victimhood that both Palestinians and Israelis shamelessly espouse! Both sides paint the other side as the perpetrator of terrible injustice and fanatical hatred, when they should be working to let go of decades-old grievances.

Shoddy-Cherry-490

Escalating violence between Hamas and Israel raises urgent humanitarian concerns, particularly for hostages amid a deepening regional crisis.

Gaza Conflict and Hostage Situation

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

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What the people want