Were the Israeli hostages sacrificed by Likud?

Did Netanyahu deliberately sacrifice the Israeli hostages ?

The majority of Israelis are horrified at what is being done in their name in Gaza. 

Some Israelis focus on their national tradition of freeing hostages. Israel’s leaders focus on killing Palestinians – offering the ridiculous argument that this may destroy Hamas and make Israel safer.

We know that Israeli hostages have been killed by Israel Defense Force (IDF) bombing in Gaza. Israeli soldiers in Gaza shoot without asking questions, and shoot to kill.  The shooting of starving civilians trying to find food from the Israeli-American death-trap known (without apparent irony) as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is now a commonplace.  Israel has sought the destruction of UNWRA because this UN Agency has served Palestinians efficiently since 1949: so UNWRA must be closed down.  “UNWRA is annoying because we do not want people to serve Gaza. We want to destroy it. We do not want to offer Palestinians support. We want them dead, or in exile.”

So IDF soldiers shoot to kill.  We know this because Israeli soldiers shot dead three Israeli hostages waving a white flag, who had removed their shirts to show they were unarmed.  This was on 15th December 2023, just two months after the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel. The three escaped hostages called out in Hebrew to the IDF soldiers and waved their white flag, followed the rules of the IDF for surrendering. To no avail. They were murdered by their own soldiers. Their officers told them: “Shoot to kill.”  So they did.

Three escaping Israeli hostages - Alon Samriz, 26; Samer Fouad al-Talalka, 24,; and Yotam Haim, 28, died on 15 Dec 2023, when Israeli soldiers killed them, ignoring their shouts and their white flag

The IDF deliberately kill humanitarian workers. On 25th May 2025, UNWRA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazarini announced that the death toll of UNWRA staff had reached 300.  At the United Nations Security Council on 5th June 2025, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrez spoke at a memorial service for his staff killed by the Israelis in Gaza. “They were driven by the pursuit of peace. By the urgency to ease human suffering. And by the conviction that every person, everywhere, deserves dignity and protection,” he said.

Humanitarian work always carries risk.  With the IDF in Gaza, it is deadly. We had the tragic World Central Kitchen massacre on 1stApril 2004, when a three-vehicle humanitarian convoy was destroyed by IDF drones.  The roofs of the vehicles were clearly marked. There was no mistake: this was a deliberate killing of seven WCK charity staff.  After this drone strike, WCK aid ships carrying 240 tons of aid for Gaza returned to Cyprus for reasons of safety. The deliberate starving of Gaza was revealed to be Israeli government policy.

Photo of a marked WCK vehicle destroyed by an Israeli drone on 1st April 2024: scrippsnews

One year later, on 23rd March 2025 we saw the killing of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) humanitarian medical workers, when Israeli troops fired on a convoy of ambulances. The organization released video found on the phone of one of its eight paramedics who died. The video shows the Red Crescent convoy driving with flashing emergency lights, and they had received confirmation in advance from the Israeli military that their road was safe.

The IDF lied about the incident. Initially – on the Monday – spokesmen claimed that Israeli troops fired on "suspicious vehicles" driving with their lights off. On the following Saturday, the IDF was forced to admit that their initial version of events was "mistaken" after the last part of the paramedic's video was released, showing the whole world that the convoy was using its emergency lights. The bodies of the eight Red Crescent paramedics, six Civil Defense first responders and one UN staff member were recovered from a shallow grave a week after their deaths, once the UN was able to obtain safe passage to the area. This incident added fifteen more, to the humanitarian workers killed by Israel.

We have seen Gazan doctors being shot through a window while operating to save patients.  The IDF has wiped out all Gaza’s hospitals.  It is truly horrifying that any country can behave in this barbaric fashion. And equally horrifying that no leader in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, or Brussels (nor in Arabia or the Gulf) has protested against the destruction and the genocide.

Brazil and South Africa have denounced the genocide. European leaders have remained silent. Trump provides the weapons that kill Palestinians.

I am not anti-Israel, but I am disgusted with Israeli behavior.

I weep with the families of those Palestinian humanitarian workers.  I weep with the Israeli families of the hostages Alon and Samer and Yotam who were slaughtered by IDF soldiers. I weep with families of the many Israeli hostages whose lives could have been saved, but who have been sacrificed for the vanity of Likud party politicians. I weep for the hostages still in the tunnels. I weep with horror at 20,000 Palestinian children killed by Israeli troops in Gaza; and at the suffering of tens of thousands of families starving in the urban desert the IDF has created in Gaza.  War crimes?  Yes. Clearly.

It was already evident on 8th October 2023, that only negotiations could save Israeli hostages. The IDF has killed the hostages, along with maybe as many as one hundred thousand Gazans.  Netanyahu’s genocidal strategy even disgusts serving IDF members, who now see themselves as victims of their leaders’ brutalities.

I believe that more than 10,000 serving and retired IDF officers and fighter-pilots have signed letters to protest against pursuing the Gaza Holocaust.  Guy Poran, a retired pilot and one of the initiators of a letter signed by air force veterans, told The Associated Press: “It’s crystal clear that the renewal of the war is for political reasons and not for security reasons.” 

This war is not saving hostages. This war is not making Israel safer. This war is not destroying Hamas (which recruits new members every day the IDF kills more people in Gaza). This war is a personal decision by corrupt Israeli leaders for political advantage.  I am disgusted.