Since the dramatic rescue of four hostages in Gaza on June 7 — in a daring, daytime raid that matched the intensity, tension, guile and explosive force of action-packed episodes in the popular TV series “Fauda” — we have learned disturbing details of the hostages’ captivity.
The reports of physical and psychological abuse are disturbing, as are indications of severe malnutrition. We join in concern about the long-term effects of hostage captivity and its impact on the hostages’ ability to reintegrate into their families and communities.
Unfortunately, given what we have learned about the barbaric attack on Oct. 7, the reports of sadistic and abusive activity by those holding the hostages come as no surprise.
What is surprising is that it wasn’t grisly, machine gun-toting Hamas warriors who were holding the hostages. And the captivity wasn’t underground, deep in the maze of the vast Hamas tunnel system beneath Gaza. Instead, the hostages were held in plain sight in a residential neighborhood in the homes of “civilians” and guarded by those “civilians.”
In the case of Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, the “civilian” home in which they were held belonged to Abdallah Aljamal, a Palestinian journalist and member of Hamas. Aljamal’s wife and his father, a physician, rounded out the “civilian” team that kept the three Israelis captive in their apartment. All three “civilians” were killed during the raid that freed the hostages.
Aljamal had been a Gaza correspondent for the Palestine Chronicle, an English-language news website and a nonprofit entity approved by the U.S. Treasury Department. Aljamal wrote some 107 stories for the Chronicle and reported frequently on Israel’s “relentless bombing” of Gaza and the impact of the war on Palestinian families — never disclosing his affiliation with the Hamas terror group or his direct participation in holding three Israeli hostages captive in his home.
And what about Aljamal’s father, the physician? How did the senior Aljamal square his Hippocratic Oath with his help holding hostages and abusing them?
Was the Aljamal family an exception? Or is the “civilian” population in Gaza so intertwined with Hamas that “civilians” are indistinguishable from the warriors of the terror group and are equally sworn to Israel’s destruction and the killing of Jews?
The latest Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll shows that 71% of Gazans support the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 and 56% expect Hamas to win the war. Further, 62% in Gaza are happy with the performance of Hamas during the war, and 59% want Hamas to stay in power. If those numbers are accurate, the “civilian” population in Gaza may not be quite as innocent or victimized as the press generally portrays.
Beyond that, “civilian” involvement in hostage imprisonment as in the case of the Aljamal family makes clear that further efforts by Israel to rescue hostages will almost certainly require entry into dense neighborhoods of “civilians” to get the hostages out.
That should send a clear message to Gaza “civilians”: If you are an active “civilian” member of a hostage captivity team or tolerate what your neighbors are doing to support Hamas, you stand a good chance of being killed when Israel comes to rescue its citizens. ■