Hamas Says It Does Not Know Where the Hostages Are Or Who Is Alive

In case you were wondering why a ceasefire deal will not happen and who's to blame.

Mar 09, 2024

A new round of hostage posters I put up a few weeks ago to replace the four of hostages who had been released. The storm that hit California blew them away and I’ve now had to replace them again. Photo by DS on Feb. 3, 2024.

This is the 21st installment of the new “Axis of Genocide” series at this Zionist Substack, the successor to the “Antisemitism and Culture” series which can be read in two 30-essay collections here and here.

This new series will document and analyze the antisemitic genocidal war waged against Israel by the Hamas terrorist group and its primary supporter, the Islamic regime in Iran. The accomplices in this attempt at a second Holocaust — Vladimir Putin’s criminal-gangster state in Russia and the authoritarian regime in China — will also come in for scrutiny and loud condemnation, as will the non-state actors supporting them, particularly the international Muslim Brotherhood propaganda network, and radical activists of both the far left and the far right. Other evil states and terrorist groups will also receive scrutiny. You can find a list of previous installments at the end of this post. Thank you for your support.

I have felt guilty for not writing more about the hostages still imprisoned by Hamas in Gaza. Multiple posts-in-progress sit in the draft folder, each eventually abandoned.

Perhaps my underlying inability to write about the subject has been due to the combination of so many unknowns driving so many fears, alongside the terror that we already know is happening.

There are three factors regarding the hostage aspect of the Israel-Hamas war that are simply very difficult to contemplate for too long without getting very upset.

First, there’s the lack of progress made in negotiations for hostage releases in exchange for significant ceasefire time and substantial releases of Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel. This is entirely Hamas’ fault. The deals offered by Israel have been very reasonable and generous. But all Hamas will seemingly accept is an outright end to the war. This really mirrors the whole history of Israel-Palestine peace negotiations. All the Palestinians will accept is “from the river to the sea” — they want all the land, and for all the Jews in Israel to fucking disappear, preferably in as bloody and degrading a way as possible. An endless succession of Oct. 7 attacks is what they want, everywhere in the Jewish state, inflicted on every Jewish man, woman, and child.

Second, there’s this jaw-dropping reality, now confirmed. While it is generally very unwise to trust anything that Hamas says, this seems entirely probable and would explain a lot about why a hostage deal has been so delayed. From Monday:

A Hamas official explained to the BBC on Sunday why the terror group didn’t accede to the Israeli demand to provide the number of hostages still alive: it doesn’t know itself.
“Practically it is impossible to know who is still alive because of the Israeli bombardment and blockage. They are in different areas with different groups,” Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told the BBC‘s London-based “Newshour” program from Istanbul.
“We have asked for a ceasefire to collect that data,” he said, adding that “we cannot accept any preconditions.”
Qatar told Israel on Sunday that ceasefire talks will not be able to advance after Hamas failed to give Jerusalem the number of living captives, which Israel said was a requirement to move forward with a ceasefire agreement.

Meaning: no matter how generous a deal Israel offers in exchange for hostages, Hamas is outright unable to negotiate.

Could Hamas be lying about this? Do they actually know where all the hostages are? I find it highly plausible that this is true because of what we’ve learned about Hamas’ massive labyrinth of underground tunnels. It’s bigger than major cities’ subway systems. It seems highly likely that this is where most of the hostages are being held and that communications within them would be heavily impaired if not impossible.

So let’s just contemplate this for a moment: there is a strong likelihood that many of the hostages have or will simply disappear, their remains never to be found.

And I have long suspected that would be the case, especially for the female hostages, in order to cover up the crimes they, specifically, have experienced for months. But it's likely that many of the males, too, have faced similar abuse, and will experience the same fate.

Which leads to the third and final point. From an article I selected this morning for republishing, as I do every Saturday:

The UN representative on sexual violence in conflicts, Pramila Patten, has raised concerns about the treatment of the hostages, suggesting that they are likely victims of continuous sexual violence.

It’s hard to think about the more than 134 people still held hostage by Hamas without those three realities hanging above like cruel, terrifying ghosts:

1. Negotiations are officially dead.

2. An unknown number of hostages may be lost forever, never to be found.

3. “continuous sexual violence”

It’s very, very hard to maintain hope right now. I’m sorry.

While I remain convinced that Israel will succeed in its mission to destroy Hamas, it seems that even when some hostages are likely rescued, the level of trauma they will have experienced will exceed comprehension.

At least we have little bursts of light like this, from the previous article:

In a glimmer of hope amidst the ongoing crisis, families of Gaza hostages have received signs of life from more than a dozen of their loved ones held captive by Hamas, as reported by N12 channel on Friday.
The news, while offering some relief, is shrouded in secrecy due to Israeli military censorship, preventing further details from being disclosed at this stage.
The plight of the hostages, who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, continues to haunt their families and the wider public. With more than 134 hostages still in captivity, the news of signs of life brings both anguish and determination to the forefront.

We had initially just put up one sign with four posters but after a few months decided to put up a second along with the “We Stand With Israel” sign. Photo by DS on Feb. 3, 2024.

The previous pieces in the “Axis of Genocide” series:

Click here to read Volume 1 of the “Antisemitism and Culture” series and volume 2 here. Ten of the most important installments from this series for better understanding this Substack’s approach to fighting hate include:

Fred Tribuzzo

Mar 10Author

David, once again. thank you for your efforts in keeping this barbaric event front and center. The horror of what Israeli citizens endured, especially those still held hostage, has not diminished an iota for many of us in America.

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Katrina Gulliver

Notes from the Field

Mar 11

I assumed some of the hostages were taken by Islamic Jihad and other non-Hamas groups, or just random tailgaters of the raid (armed young men? With the chance to abduct some women?). Hamas didn’t know who had done all the abducting and where they took the victims on oct 7, let alone months later.

Hamas Says It Does Not Know Where the Hostages Are Or Who Is Alive

In case you were wondering why a ceasefire deal will not happen and who's to blame.

1. Negotiations are officially dead.

2. An unknown number of hostages may be lost forever, never to be found.

3. “continuous sexual violence”

Discussion about this post