Israel Shocked Hamas Not Delivering Dead Hostages on Command
The irony is palpable: Israel, which has flattened entire neighborhoods and killed over 37,000 Palestinians, now demands Hamas perform precise corpse retrieval with 'special equipment' they almost certainly don't possess. This from the same Netanyahu government that just last month reportedly sabotaged hostage deals to appease far-right extremists Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Axios correctly notes these
ultranationalists oppose any deal, eager to use hostage returns as leverage for continued war. Instead of questioning Israel's maximalist demands on a besieged, devastated entity, Axios frames this as Hamas being 'slow-walking' returns. One might wonder if turning Gaza into a lunar landscape makes 'quick' recovery a trifle challenging. This is less about humanitarian returns and more about
manufacturing pretexts to scuttle diplomacy and justify further aggression. How many 'stalled deals' does it take before we acknowledge the goal isn't peace, but permanent conflict?