Hamas is deliberately psychologically torturing Israelis during the hostage releases ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Hamas is deliberately psychologically torturing Israelis during the hostage releases

Terrorism is, by definition, the attempt to instill fear and terror in a civilian population. Usually this comes from bombs, bullets, airplane hijackings, knives and car rammings, but the effect desired is always psychological, not physical.

Every single move Hamas has made with the hostages has been specifically and deliberately designed to cause the maximum pain to Israelis. In other words, the hostage releases are a continuation of October 7, not a conclusion.

The entire process over the past week has been one of torturing Israelis in general, and the families of hostages in particular:

* Refusing to confirm how many and which hostages are alive.

* Delaying giving the names of those to be released until (and beyond) the last possible moment.

* Claiming that Israeli bombs killed a female hostage right before the ceasefire.

* Delaying telling Israel whether the hostages released in every handover are alive or dead.

* The entire process of dragging out the release of hostages over weeks.

* Giving the hostages "gift bags" as if their imprisonment was merely a summer camp they enjoyed.

* Staging mobs of people when the hostages were handed to the Red Cross to make them fearful to the last second.

* Forcing Red Cross representatives to sign a form upon the hostage release calling them "prisoners" in order to make it appear that the international community agrees that they were prisoners of war, not kidnapped civilians.

* Choosing Saturday for the successive hostage releases to force Israeli Jews to violate the Sabbath (although of course this is perfectly allowed for saving lives.) Hamas changed the date back and forth, further causing anguish.

* Celebrating the release of murderers as if this was a prisoner swap.

* Celebrating the ceasefire as if it was a victory.

* Using the deal as an opportunity to make it appear that Hamas is in full control of Gaza and the war was a waste of time.

This is besides the psychological torture of the hostages themselves while in captivity. Dr. Itai Pessach, director of the Safra Children's Hospital at Sheba Medical Center, described some of this to CBS News after the first hostage release in November 2023:

"There's not a single person that came back that didn't have a significant physical injury or a medical problem. On top of that, some of them were getting [psychological] medication, to look better than they actually were."

There were also stories of hostages being branded (a common practice inflicted on Jews and other prisoners of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust), and of being sexually abused. "Yes, we did see signs of branding," Pessach said. "We definitely saw signs of being handcuffed. We did hear and see evidence of sexual abuse in a significant part of the people we have treated. We also heard evidence – and that was one of the hardest parts – of abuse against those that [are still there], both physical and sexual."

Pessach also said hostages were subjected to psychological torture (as in being told that Israel no longer exists). "What really struck me is how prepared the Hamas terrorists were with their psychological torment," he said. "It was structured and preplanned. They're constantly saying, 'Nobody cares about you. You are here alone. You hear the bombs falling? They don't care about you. We're here to protect you.' And this really played with their minds.

"There have been some episodes where they separated two family members, and then put them back together, then separated them, then put them back together. And so, as a parent you would do anything to have your child with you, even when you are in captivity," he said.

This torture, and more like the hostage videos Hamas would release, is all part of the same war from Hamas' perspective. From the start, Hamas understood that this was a cognitive war far more than a kinetic war, and they have waged this war - and continue to wage that war - as such. Some of it is aimed at hostages themselves, some at their families, some at Israelis -all to maximize the pain of Israelis and Jews worldwide. (The other component of the Hamas' cognitive war is aimed at world public opinion, with very different messages for the liberal West and for the decidedly illiberal Arab world.)

For Hamas, the ceasefire is another phase of the war, and an unparalleled opportunity for Hamas to continue to attack Israelis in public with the media being characteristically clueless as to how they are being manipulated.