Still Don’t Trust Them

I know that Hamas is returning hostage remains again, but I can’t agree that this ceasefire will hold. I didn’t ever see this as a ceasefire in the first place since Hamas hasn’t stopped fighting from the start. However, the living hostages are back and that has to count for something. In any event, let’s talk about the current return of hostage remains as we see in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

The IDF is preparing for the return of the partial remains of three slain Gaza hostages on Friday night, Israeli media reported.

The bodies will come via the Red Cross again:

The Red Cross reportedly will hand over the remains of three hostages to IDF troops overnight on Friday. Hamas did not specify which remains it was handing over.

While I really don’t think they are a neutral party they are still seen as one:

“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), acting as a neutral intermediary, assisted this evening, at the request and with the approval of both parties, in returning the remains of three bodies to Israeli authorities. The identification process is the responsibility of the relevant authorities in Israel and will be carried out by them," the ICRC statement reads.

The statement went on to say that the Red Cross has no part in finding the remains, although there are sources that say they did help with the charade of returning the remains of a previously recovered hostage body:

“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) does not take part in locating the remains. In accordance with international humanitarian law, it is the responsibility of the parties to locate, collect, and return the dead. The parties must act to assist in returning them to their families. The ICRC can fulfill its role as a neutral intermediary only through the cooperation of all relevant parties and within the framework of the current agreement.”

These three bodies are after two others were given back yesterday:

This comes after slain hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch were returned to Israel on Thursday night.

The remains of the two slain hostages were transferred into Israeli territory by the IDF and the Shin Bet on Thursday evening just before 5:30 p.m., the Prime Minister's Office said, and were identified at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Another Reason

If you need more reasons to doubt Hamas actually will disarm, the Post article adds a warning to Hamas to honor the yellow line established by the deal, something they haven’t done from the start of the deal:

Mediators informed Hamas to withdraw from behind the Yellow Line before Thursday evening, otherwise the IDF would strike, a US official told The Jerusalem Post that night.

They are given one day to comply, which they won’t do as they will use tunnels to lurk underground:

"Last night, Hamas was notified through Egypt and Qatar that they had 24 hours to evacuate their terrorists from the area behind the yellow line currently being held by the IDF," the source said.

The report tries to give Hamas some cover which is typical for these liberal Israelis sources:

Hamas had previously crossed past the Yellow Line with the permission of Israeli authorities, and in coordination with the Red Cross, to recover the bodies of hostages.

Overall, Hamas is still slow rolling the return of these hostage bodies so they can avoid even talking about disarming. I expect them to offer more reasons why they just can’t find them, which was their plan all along. However they are playing a dangerous game since the major leverage they always had was the living hostages which is gone. Right now only the pressure from US President Trump is keeping Israel from considering the deal broken and defeating Hamas completely. Trump is actually keeping Arab allies from considering the deal violated which is an interesting turn of events. As we pray for this war against the terrorists currently surrounding God’s chosen people to end, we need to once again petition Heaven for America to quite tying Israel’s arms behind its back and let them finish the job.