The Israel-Hamas conflict continues for Hanukkah this year. A ceasefire has been in the works, but has been delayed. While news outlets such as Reuters note that both sides are blaming each other, Hamas is complicating the matter. That's not the only news out of the region, though, as the Biden-Harris administration comes to a close and President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office once again in a few weeks.
As Reuters reported on Christmas Day:
DUBAI/CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Dec 25 (Reuters) - The Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame on Wednesday over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.
Hamas said that Israel had laid down further conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.
…
Netanyahu countered in a statement: "The Hamas terrorist organization continues to lie, is reneging on understandings that have already been reached, and is continuing to create difficulties in the negotiations."
Israel will, however, continue relentless efforts to return hostages, he added.
Israeli negotiators returned to Israel from Qatar on Tuesday evening for consultations about a hostage deal after a significant week of talks, Netanyahu's office said on Tuesday.
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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, speaking with commanders in southern Gaza, said on Wednesday that Israel will retain security control of the enclave, including by means of buffer zones and controlling posts.
Hamas is demanding an end to the war, while Israel says it wants to end Hamas' rule of the enclave first, to ensure it will no longer pose a threat to Israelis.
That a ceasefire negotiation has been held up was also a trending topic over X earlier this week, specifically with Hamas refusing to release a list of living hostages. Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 of last year, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. Not even babies and Holocaust survivors were spared. The terrorists also engaged in torture, rape, and kidnapping, taking approximately 250 people hostage, including American citizens. There are believed to be about 60 living hostages remaining.
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On Thursday, a thread was shared over X detailing the horrific conditions that the hostages have been subject to.
🚨 Warning: Distressing content
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) December 26, 2024
A new report details the abuse of hostages taken from Israel on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian terrorists.
All of the evidence is from testimonies provided by released hostages. The report makes grim reading.
A Thread 🧵
Such an attack occurred during the Biden-Harris administration, and when there already were foreign policy crises going on around the world. The Biden-Harris administration has tried to appeal to both sides, including through harping on a two-state solution. This also includes wasting countless taxpayer dollars and the safety of American troops for aid to Gaza. An American soldier, Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, even died on October 31. He was 23-years-old. It doesn't look like there will be much wasting going on once Trump is back in office, however.
On Sunday, Israel's Channel 12 Amit Segal posted to X a message he said Trump sent to Israel, that he won't insist on the humanitarian aid that Biden has.
"As a reminder, in Israel, it is argued that the only reason Hamas has not yet been defeated is the aid imposed starting in November 2023 by the Biden administration," Segal's post also noted, as he wondered, "Will a new era begin in Gaza next month?"
Plenty of news outlets and foreign policy organizations have been wondering the same thing recently.
Trump sent messages to Israel: I won’t insist on humanitarian aid as Biden did.
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) December 22, 2024
As a reminder, in Israel, it is argued that the only reason Hamas has not yet been defeated is the aid imposed starting in November 2023 by the Biden administration.
Will a new era begin in Gaza…
When it comes to concern for Gaza, it's worth reminding that aid to the region has been hijacked by Hamas terrorists, and plans for the pier that Biden demanded be built fell apart without much success, but with plenty of money wasted.
It gets messier from there. Earlier this month, the Henry Jackson Society released a report, "Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll From The Hamas-Run Ministry Of Health in Gaza." Such a report explains how the death toll in Gaza has been inflated.
As the New York Post summarized:
Civilian death counts in the Israel-Hamas war have been inflated and distorted to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent civilians, a new study found.
The report from the UK-based Henry Jackson Society found that news outlets failed to distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties and relied on manipulated statistics from the Hamas-run Health Ministry when reporting on the war.
Gaza officials claim more than 44,700 people have been killed following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, but does not acknowledge that upwards of 17,000 were Hamas terrorists — a fact the media often omits, the study found, citing Israeli and US military and intelligence reports for its data.
...
Men were included on lists of women killed in the conflict, while adults were included on counts of child deaths, researchers found.
Around 5,000 natural deaths appear to have been added to the list of casualties, including cancer patients who later appeared on lists of those still receiving treatment, researchers said.
The errors have “led to a narrative where the Israel Defense Forces are portrayed as disproportionately targeting civilians,” the report states.
Earlier this year, Hamas terrorists even admitted the numbers being shared far and wide are inaccurate, as has the anti-Israel United Nations.
But again, Trump stands in stark contrast to the Biden-Harris administration on such a matter. Even before he was elected, Trump ran a visibly pro-Israel campaign, earning the endorsement from a former Democratic congressman, Rep. Pete Deutsch, who represented Florida's 20th Congressional District. Deutsch praised Trump's position on Israel during a press call held on the anniversary of October 7. The president-elect also earned considerable Jewish support in last month's election.
Since winning, Trump issued a strong warning to Hamas terrorists if they did not release the hostages before he's inaugurated on January 20, as he did in a post over TruthSocial at the start of this month. He's doubled down on that, issuing the same warning during his press conference last week.
President-elect Trump on conversation with Prime Minister @netanyahu: "I'll be very available on January 20...I gave warning that if these hostages aren't back home by that date, all hell's going to break out." pic.twitter.com/gmlWyWmxg5
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 16, 2024
During his first term, Trump served as a particularly pro-Israel president, bringing about the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Iran, which funds terrorist groups as proxies, including Hamas for the October 7 attacks, was a lot less emboldened as it is now under the Biden-Harris administration. Trump also moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, and recognized it as the capital of Israel.
Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign tried to appeal to both sides, in a manner that was so obvious that even CNN called her out for it days before the November election she lost to Trump. She also relied heavily on having former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) campaign heavily with her in the final weeks, a move which Trump and his surrogates pointed out was an affront to Muslim and Arab-American voters in key states for Michigan when it comes to seeking peace in the Middle East.
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