As if the tales of bestiality by the Hamas terrorists on 7 October 2023—when they attacked and killed over 1,200 Israelis and other nationalities in the most horrific manner and took 251 people hostage—were not enough, another chapter in this blood curdling horror story unfolded last week when news broke about how two toddlers, one a five-year-old and another two years old, were murdered in captivity. Ariel and Kfir Bibas were kidnapped with their mother Shiri by the Mujahideen Brigades, a Palestinian terror group, which was one of the several groups that joined hands with Hamas to carry out the atrocities of 7 October 2023. As their remains were returned to Israel by the Hamas, the two children were found to have been strangled bare-handed to death and disfigured to show that they had been killed in an Israeli strike. What was thought to be the body of their mother, turned out to be that of a woman from Gaza, which the Hamas, in an act of incalculable cruelty, had passed off as Shiri. It was only two days later that Hamas released Shiri’s body. The Hamas also made a huge show of returning the bodies, parading them around and turning it into a celebration, with Gazans, young and old revelling in the inhumanity on display. Even otherwise, Hamas has been parading around the hostages before releasing them, forcing them to wave and smile at the Gazans. As shock and horror rippled through Israel, and much of the civilised world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel had decided “to delay the release of terrorists that was planned for yesterday (Saturday) until the release of the next hostages is ensured, without the humiliating ceremonies.” Around 600 terrorists were scheduled to be released on Saturday, but now it is indefinitely postponed. According to the Israelis, over 60 more hostages, including five Americans, are yet to be released, but it’s not known how many of them are still alive.
Amid this, Netanyahu has started intensifying operations inside the West Bank, with three refugee camps emptied of around 40,000 people. Israeli troops are expected to stay there for at least a year. These camps are a hotbed of terrorist activity.
In the meanwhile, three parked buses were blown up by Palestinian terrorists, with explosives found in two more. While mass casualties were avoided, Israel is being reminded once again that the terrorist threat remains and has not been eradicated with the crippling of Hamas. While the missiles and rockets from Gaza may have stopped, the Hamas and other similar groups have resorted to carrying out terror attacks targeting civilians, which too cause huge damage and mental trauma.
The biggest problem here is the radicalisation of a whole population—the Palestinians in this case. They have been completely radicalised and see Hamas as their sole representative. As a result of which, it increasingly appears that inhumanity comes naturally to them as they indulge in a peculiar dance of death where the line between civilised behaviour and savagery gets blurred. This is trademark Hamas. This is also what 7 October 2023 saw—the wilful and gleeful participation of Palestinian civilians in Hamas’ terror attack. While supporters of the Palestinian cause are saying that the murder of the two Israeli children has to be seen in the context of the thousands of Palestinian children killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza, the fact is there is no moral equivalence. While the death of children is always unacceptable and tragic, in this case, the Palestinian terror groups have inflicted unimaginable, and deliberate horror on Israeli children—from roasting them in ovens to killing them with bare hands, as they did in the case of Ariel and Kfir. In contrast, the Palestinian children are the unintended victims of an unnecessary war thrust on them by their own people. This is the fundamental difference between the two situations. Hence, while the death of the Palestinian children should be mourned, but not to condemn, or to try and normalise what the Palestinians have done to Israeli children, and to Israelis, young and old, shows a complete lack of moral compass. Sadly, a large section of the Palestinian population is guilty of this, as well as many of their co-religionists and people who believe in the so-called Palestinian cause. It is simply not right to try and consign the suffering of the Jewish people as a footnote of history—what happened on 7 October was too painful for them and will reverberate through generations. To dismiss what was inflicted on them as a justified response to the suffering of the Palestinians, or to indulge in whataboutery amounts to a lack of humanity. It is this mindset that needs to change, as else, sooner or later Palestinians will lose the sympathy of a large part of the world.