Americans being held hostage

[SassyLady]

Americans among hostages held in Gaza, Israeli minister says
From CNN's Casey Gannon

Americans are among the “scores” of hostages being held in Gaza, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday.

He declined to estimate the number of Americans specifically being held.

Dermer called the attack on Israel a "savage attack," saying that women, children and elderly people are among the hostages in Gaza.

The US is “working overtime” to verify reports of missing and dead Americans overseas after Hamas launched its unprecedented attack, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Bash earlier Sunday

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-attack-10-08-23/index.html

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-attack-10-08-23/index.html

Well. I pity them if Biden is in any way in charge of trying to get them their freedom. -Tyr

























-Tyr

[Gunny]

Will be a sticking point between Biden admin and Israel. Israel doesn't negotiate for hostages. The US will. The family members back home will be crying their asses off to the MSM who will gladly keep their wailing front and center.

Not unsympathetic. Training. It's the "drop your gun and we'll let them go" scenario. The second you do, you're both dead.

[Black Diamond]

Will be a sticking point between Biden admin and Israel. Israel doesn't negotiate for hostages. The US will. The family members back home will be crying their asses off to the MSM who will gladly keep their wailing front and center.

Not unsympathetic. Training. It's the "drop your gun and we'll let them go" scenario. The second you do, you're both dead.

Israel can't afford to listen to "us"

[Kathianne]

Israel can't afford to listen to "us"

Especially once their real response is felt and "the world" says to show pity. No!

[Gunny]

Especially once their real response is felt and "the world" says to show pity. No!I wouldn't and I hope they don't. Goes back to what I always harp on: we show mercy and deal with these murderous cretins in good faith, to the point of browbeating others to do the same, and they just continue doing what they are doing and everyone acts shocked:rolleyes: Not sure WTF anyone else thinks militant Islamic extremists/jihadists are going to do, but I got a damned good idea and it's not from guessing. It's from watching.

[Black Diamond]

I don't want Biden or any of his idiots in on this

[SassyLady]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/state-department-investigating-reports-that-americans-among-those-killed-captured-in-israel-attack-5506149

[SassyLady]

Here come the executions

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/just-hamas-terrorists-threaten-mass-execution-civilian-hostages/

[Kathianne]

Here come the executions

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/just-hamas-terrorists-threaten-mass-execution-civilian-hostages/

I already put something up, Hamas statement regarding that Israel 'needs' to give warning or they'll kill hostages. Harsh, but they are going to have to just do what they have to do, regardless of hostages.

[Kathianne]

IMO, it's clear why this threat cannot be appeased:

More:

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israels-hostage-crisis-execution-threat-9f2c0191?st=sepucdffa6cajg9&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink


Israel’s unprecedented hostage crisis took an even graver turn Monday when Palestinian militants threatened to begin executing prisoners unless the government ratchets back its bombardment of their Gaza sanctuary.

“From this hour on, we announce that any targeting of civilian homes without advanced warning will be met regrettably with the execution of one of the enemy civilian hostages we hold, and we will be forced to broadcast this,” said Abu Obaida, the spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in a statement broadcast on Arab satellite news channels.


The announcement drove home the excruciating dilemma faced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as it weighs whether to further ratchet up its three-day-old offensive in Gaza to punish Hamas for a weekend assault that left over 900 Israelis dead and more than 2,400 wounded.


The group, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, returned to Gaza after assaulting military bases and towns in southern Israel with at least 100 hostages, whose families have pressed Netanyahu to safeguard their lives as the military campaign continues.


The sheer number of abductees—and the fear that Hamas might execute some hostages and use others as human shields—leaves Netanyahu and his advisers agonizing over the next military steps, including whether to launch a ground invasion that might produce even more casualties than the shaken country has already absorbed.


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Israel has carried out dozens of retaliatory strikes on targets in Gaza, after an attack by Hamas left over 1,100 people dead. Iranian security officials helped Hamas plan the assault for several weeks. WSJ’s Shayndi Raice and Dov Lieber report from Tel Aviv. Photo: Abir Sultan/Shutterstock
The alternate course—to reach a prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas that would potentially free hundreds or even thousands of Palestinians in return for bringing the Israelis home—risks handing Hamas a propaganda victory that few Israelis are prepared to accept.


“We care about our hostages, and this time they are citizens—women and children. But now is the time to fight against Hamas, and all Israelis are behind it,” said Ariel Heimann, a retired Israeli brigadier general and a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. “It’s a lose-lose situation—whatever is decided.”


Even before the Hamas threat to begin executions, the Netanyahu government was facing pressure from its powerful far-right ministers to undertake a military operation without concessions to win the hostages’ freedom beforehand. At a Cabinet meeting late Saturday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the Israeli army to “hit Hamas brutally and not take the matter of the captives into significant consideration.”


The Hamas threat to begin executing civilian hostages came after the Israeli military said Monday it was going on offensive with an intensifying bombing campaign. The defense minister ordered a siege of the coastal enclave, and the military refrained from its usual practice of giving a warning ahead of airstrikes to allow civilians time to evacuate.

...

[Gunny]

IMO, it's clear why this threat cannot be appeased:

More:

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israels-hostage-crisis-execution-threat-9f2c0191?st=sepucdffa6cajg9&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalinkThey can't afford to give in.

[Kathianne]

They can't afford to give in.
I sincerely hope that Netanyahu can be strong enough not to give in. Not one Palestinian prisoner should be released.

[Gunny]

I sincerely hope that Netanyahu can be strong enough not to give in. Not one Palestinian prisoner should be released.I'd swap 1-for-1 prisoners with Hamas. You betcha.

The Israelis/whoever can go back to Israel and the Pali's can go to Gaza. That works our perfectly for me :dev:

[Kathianne]

I'd swap 1-for-1 prisoners with Hamas. You betcha.

The Israelis/whoever can go back to Israel and the Pali's can go to Gaza. That works our perfectly for me :dev:

Personally I'm looking at this whole mess, from the March by Democratic Socialists, to idiots in Paris, London, etc., all in solidarity with Palestinians. You know what, I'm definitely not against just wiping out any Palestinians that don't voluntarily leave. Done. Fini.

[Gunny]

Personally I'm looking at this whole mess, from the March by Democratic Socialists, to idiots in Paris, London, etc., all in solidarity with Palestinians. You know what, I'm definitely not against just wiping out any Palestinians that don't voluntarily leave. Done. Fini.

Since 1949, what has "Palestine" contributed to anything? Terror, death and destruction. I was against Israel giving them a chunk of land from the get-go. Gotta appease the international ass-kissers:rolleyes:

The Palestinian people CHOSE, in a vote, their government, and internationally recognized terrorist organization. They made their beds.

[Black Diamond]

Since 1949, what has "Palestine" contributed to anything? Terror, death and destruction. I was against Israel giving them a chunk of land from the get-go. Gotta appease the international ass-kissers:rolleyes:

The Palestinian people CHOSE, in a vote, their government, and internationally recognized terrorist organization. They made their beds.
How did they give up Sinai?

[Black Diamond]

Personally I'm looking at this whole mess, from the March by Democratic Socialists, to idiots in Paris, London, etc., all in solidarity with Palestinians. You know what, I'm definitely not against just wiping out any Palestinians that don't voluntarily leave. Done. Fini.

I've been thinking of Curtis Lemay the last couple days.