mwguy

To me it sounded like they were specifically pushing against a claim that Hamas offered to free everyone.

You read it correctly.

I'm not dehumanizing the hostages. Hamas has literally clarified that when it agrees to release Civillian hostages it will not release any active or reservist hostage or military-aged males (even if they're not in the military currently).

During the temporary cease-fire, they were supposed to release all the elderly hostages. But they kept some of the males back who were veterans.

The headline given wasn't an offer by Hamas to return all the hostages as was claimed earlier in the thread. It was an offer to return some of the hostages and to keep the rest indefinitely.

How would that work? Should they surrender themselves to the IDF while delivering the hostages, just notify them of where they are so they won’t be bombed or how would that all work?

Israel has tip lines set up for Hamas members and members of the Gazan public to call. You call and say, "me and my boys will have an unspecified number of hostages at x location at y time and are looking to surrender. Then you show up at that time with those resources and surrender.

Is it really surprising that a government that started a war while spending zero dollars on air superiority, zero dollars on artillery, zero dollars on defensive fortifications, zero dollars on civilian bomb shelters, zero dollars on radar and enemy detection and zero dollars on a military college for its officers is losing the war it started with a 45:1 casualty ratio?

If Israel were truly trying to maximize harm in Gaza it could easily be 4500:1.

This is special Olympics vs. Olympics here.

Let's be real, if you had a link to the autopsy you wouldn't change your mind. You haven't decided your beliefs based upon evidence; why would you change them based on it?

Reuters

On Sunday, following the return of the bodies, an autopsy revealed he and the other five hostages had been shot at close range within 48 hours before Israeli forces arrived and recovered the bodies in a tunnel under Gaza.

But Israel can't really expect Hamas to follow Geneva conventions when they themselves violate it a hundreds times as often.

This is a massively false statement. And it's one that should make you reconsider your viewpoint from the ground up.

I don't know if a more incorrect statement could be made about this conflict.

Historically you've shipped them to a neutral nation (like Switzerland) who negotiated their return to their home country on the condition that they not be allowed to rejoin the war effort either for the duration of the war or for a specific time.

None of these things are solutions that haven't been seen before.

Because now they'll be pursued for the rest of their life. Free a hostage and you have essentially a get out of jail free card.

What is the source or evidence the hostages were executed?

They released an autopsy. What the frack do people want?

"Civilian" hostages. Israel has compulsory military service. And a reasonable chunk of those taken hostage were active or reservist military members.

So no, not all.

I was alive and politically active in 2004/2005. There was a legitimate belief that the pullout would be a blueprint for peace.

The path to zero settlements and zero settlement violence is peace in Gaza. As long as Hamas keeps breaking cease fires, the political factions who are advocating for the end of West Bank Settlements will never gain power and will never be able to implement a pullout.

Did you comprehend this section? There's a faction in Israel that is pro 2 state solution. Unless that faction takes power, Israel will never roll back it's West Bank Settlements. Since that faction is responsible for the pullout in Gaza, the Israeli body-politic is not going to vote them into power until the Gaza Strip is peaceful.

The settlements represent land-grabbing, and land-grabbing and peace-making don’t go together, it is one or the other.

The faction that was against that in Israel implemented the Gaza pullout. You're right it is one of the other. Advocating for Gazan violence is defacto advocating for settlements.