Gaza will forever be under Hamas's cruelty unless real change is made

Without complete demilitarization and a fundamental ideological shift within Palestinian society, there is no guarantee that Gaza will not fall back under Hamas’ rule.

By DAVID BEN-BASAT FEBRUARY 8, 2025 18:20

Hamas terrorists seen before a hostage release in Gaza City, February 1, 2025 (photo credit: Ali Hassan/Flash90)

The events surrounding the return of three hostages last Saturday as orchestrated by Hamas expose the organization’s deep-seated cruelty, not only toward Israelis but also toward its own people. 

Hamas selects hostages for release based on meticulous criteria calculated to deepen divisions in Israel, ensuring every detail of these exchanges serves as a propaganda tool and a means of instilling fear and pain.

One glaring example is Hamas’s response to the protests led by Einav Zangauker, mother of IDF soldier Matan Zangauker, who was abducted by Hamas on October 7. 

Despite meeting all criteria for release, Matan was left behind. 

Who can judge a mother fighting like a lioness for her son while enduring heartbreak and sorrow? 

Palestinian terrorist surround hostage Arbel Yehoud, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7 2023 attack, on the day they hand her to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Yunis. (credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)

Yet, it is impossible to ignore the suspicion that one reason for the delay in Matan’s release was his mother’s prominence in protests and her extensive media exposure. 

Hamas’ decision to punish his family is part of a broader pattern in which these inhuman actors use hostages not just as bargaining chips but as political weapons. 

Every release is timed and calculated to serve a long-term strategy of destabilizing Israeli society from within.

The scenes of supposedly “uninvolved” Palestinian crowds celebrating kidnappings underscore the loss of humanity orchestrated by Gaza’s architects of hate – who encourage torture, rape, and murder of innocent civilians solely for being Jewish. 

Hostages returning to Israel have reported horrifying receptions from the Palestinian public in Gaza. 

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While Israeli captives endured terror, hunger, and violence in Hamas’ makeshift prisons, the Gazan streets reveled in their humiliation. 

Hamas not only encouraged these grotesque celebrations but also documented and disseminated them worldwide. 

The images of cheering mobs glorifying the kidnappers and cursing the victims are further proof that the issue extends beyond Hamas’ leadership and is deeply rooted in Palestinian society.

Legal advisors, both in Israel and abroad, have urged compliance with the Geneva Conventions, ensuring that these inhuman Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons receive proper treatment and a diet rich in vegetables and fruit. 

However, the hypocrisy and twisted moral standards of those advisors never required similar scrutiny, nor made such demands, on behalf of Israeli hostages languishing under depraved Hamas captors. 

Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force terrorists are marked men. Israel’s long reach will hunt down every last one of them, no matter how long it takes.  

Hamas vs PA

Western nations are pressuring Israel to agree to Palestinian Authority (PA) governance in Gaza after the war. Such an arrangement is dangerous, futile, and unfeasible at this stage. 

The fundamental problem is that Hamas continues to enjoy substantial support among Gazans, and in some sectors, its grip has only strengthened. Hamas has entrenched itself both as a military force and a popular movement controlling all facets of life in Gaza.

This is not a new reality. 

In 2006, in the first and last Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas decisively defeated Fatah. 

A year later, the terror group staged a violent coup, murdered PA operatives, and threw Fatah members from rooftops to their deaths. There is no guarantee that history will not repeat itself.

Hamas tortures Gazans

Before the so-called human rights groups and self-proclaimed defenders of justice criticize the most moral army in the world, they should first examine how Hamas uses Gaza’s civilian population as human shields, stockpiling weapons and establishing military headquarters in residential areas, including schools, mosques, and hospitals. 

Hamas deliberately endangers Gazan civilians to generate propaganda images of casualties. 

It has brutally suppressed internal dissent for years, carrying out executions of political opponents, particularly Fatah supporters, and imprisoning and torturing Gaza residents suspected of collaboration with Israel or opposition to its rule. 

These political purges, carried out without trial, involve extreme violence.

As recently as November, the IDF exposed Hamas’ torture methods through interrogations of Gazans accused of opposing the regime. 

Cameras seized in the Jabalia refugee camp captured detainees hanging from chains, humiliated and beaten.

According to an IDF statement, Israeli forces uncovered footage during the ground maneuver in Gaza proving Hamas’ severe abuse of civilians. 

The materials, dating from 2018 to 2020, reveal Hamas’ brutal interrogation methods, systematic suppression of dissent, and gross human rights violations.

The IDF confirmed that these videos, stored by Hamas security personnel, document activities at Gaza’s notorious “Post 17,” where prisoners are subjected to horrific torture for suspected opposition to Hamas. The footage exposes Hamas’s rule over Gaza as one that thrives on terror and silencing its own people.

The Daily Mail reported that the IDF discovered video evidence of Hamas torturing Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 

The footage, seized from Hamas computers in an abandoned compound in Jabalia, depicts bound prisoners with sacks over their heads, chained to the floor and ceiling. In one video, a man is seen screaming in agony. 

These horrifying videos, containing thousands of hours of torture footage, were likely captured on security cameras inside a Hamas base in northern Gaza. Timestamps on the recordings indicate they were filmed between 2018 and 2020.

The report noted that the reasons for the prisoners’ detention remain unclear. However, human rights experts have repeatedly warned that Hamas abducts Gazans from their homes and subjects them to brutal torture. 

Among those targeted are political dissidents, suspected Israeli collaborators, and individuals accused of violating Hamas’ strict moral codes, such as members of the LGBTQ community and those accused of adultery.

A PA fantasy

While most Palestinians still identify with Hamas and with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s weak and widely distrusted leadership, the idea that the PA could govern Gaza is more fantasy than reality. 

When President Donald Trump proposed a plan for Gazans to emigrate to Arab countries, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE all rejected the idea, declaring, “We refuse the displacement of Palestinians from their lands.” In other words: We do not want them here.

The near-certainty of Hamas regaining control of Gaza if handed over to the PA is undeniable. Hamas will never relinquish its grip on Gaza, even if Israel withdraws and allows the PA to assume control. 

The terrorist organization will simply resort to its previous tactics: eliminating Fatah members, instigating internal terror, and continuing to smuggle weapons for future use against Israel.

Without complete demilitarization and a fundamental ideological shift within Palestinian society, there is no guarantee that Gaza will not fall back under Hamas’ rule, whether through elections or by force.

The writer is the CEO of Radios 100FM, honorary consul general of Nauru, vice dean of the Consular Corps, and president of the Israeli Radio Communications Association. Previously, he served as a correspondent for IDF Radio and a television reporter for NBC.