RINJ Women Ask Hamas to Release Hostages

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Hamas hostage taking is about prisoner swaps to get back from Israel the hordes of Palestinian adults and children Israel holds illegitimately.

“Thousands of Palestinians have been snatched off the streets by Israel over the years without reason or due process. In efforts to get these people back, somewhere around 5,700 persons in total, anywhere up to 1,700 with no Court appearance or any raison d’être whatsoever, people from The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Hamas has a mission to also acquire prisoners with whom it can conduct prisoner exchanges with the Israelis,” explains Simon Baldock, an Israeli security analyst based in Tel Aviv.

“That is the explanation behind the Hamas hostage-taking part of their raid into Israel on 7 October, 2023,” he added.

Netanyahu personally rejected an offer of a release of two hostages whom Hamas say are not well.

Abu Ubaida, an official spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas has said overnight.

Mr. Ubaida explained, “We informed our Qatari brothers yesterday evening that we would release the following persons:
Nurit Yitzhak ID Card No. 001145416
Yocheved Lifshitz ID Card No. 005236955

“For compelling humanitarian reasons,” Hamas said it would release the parties without compensation, however, it said “the occupation government refused to receive them.”

Hamas has also offered a prisoner exchange.

Hamas has offered a deal in which it would trade the hostages it grabbed on 7 October 2023 for the Palestinian prisoners Israel has grabbed off the streets—often for no particular reason—in the West Bank, in Gaza and in East Jerusalem.

It would be a swap of something like 190 persons for 5,200 people or more. Israel has a bad habit of arresting persons from their homes thus allowing a new batch of settlers to take over the dwelling. The detainees don’t seem to come back.

Amnesty International has said that “Israeli police have committed a catalogue of violations against Palestinians in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, carrying out a discriminatory repressive campaign including sweeping mass arrests, using unlawful force against peaceful protesters, and subjecting detainees to torture and other ill-treatment, during and after the armed hostilities in Israel and Gaza.”

Amnesty International sets out complaints against Israel including:

Sweeping arrests targeting Palestinian activists.
Unlawful use of force against Palestinian protesters.
Torture of Palestinian detainees.
Failure to protect Palestinians from planned attacks by groups of Jewish supremacists.

This conduct of Israel has removed many persons from their homes and those homes have been taken over by Israeli settlers in a clear-cut path for erosion of the territories and resettlement which now creates a difficulty for Israel when it comes to bargaining for the release of Palestinians whose homes have been given away to Jewish settlers.

The West BankPalestinian women walk by Israel’s barrier near Ramallah in the West Bank. . At any momet they could be grabbed by Israeli officers and held without cause indefinitely, especially if they own homes that Israeli settlers want. Photo credit: IRIN/Shabtai Gold/UN. Photo is cropped. Art, cropping, enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine

The precise number of hostages still alive in Hamas care and control is not known exactly. There has been some suggestion by local Tel Aviv media that there are at least two dozen children, a half dozen teens; about 20 seniors; and the rest being adults held by Hamas. Another 50 to 60 hostages may be held by various other groups.

At least one woman has been treated in a Gaza hospital.

Release Hostages

RINJ Women have made a clear-cut appeal to Hamas.

“Think of this. When there is no other help, we are there. Our women deliver your babies. Why? Because we value the life of each woman and child as the most precious sentient being in the universe. We must protect each woman and child, Inshallah. Please do the same. Hamas, please release all 7 Oct. 2023 hostages held in Gaza.

“Ironically, we worry that Israel will bomb and kill them. We hope Israel will also release the Palestinian hostages, order a Ceasefire and find a healthy, safe peace for everyone involved,” the RINJ women CSO said in a video statement.