February 21, 2025 - 7:00am
More than any recent conflict, the war between Israel and Hamas has demonstrated the affective power of symbolic images.
Since the release of the first Israeli hostages on 19 January, a new set of images have emerged that might yet again change the direction of the war and threaten chances for peace in the region. The hostage handovers have been organised by Hamas in a manner guaranteed to inflame public opinion in Israel and beyond. From the crisp, clean uniforms and spotless green headbands of their gunmen, to the gleaming Toyota pickup trucks, to the podiums on which hostages are displayed before their release, like a sinister Olympic medal ceremony. Behind them, Benjamin Netanyahu is depicted as a blood-sucking vampire.
The latest images, of the coffins of deceased hostages — Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, and the elderly Oded Lifshitz — suggest that Hamas is deliberately trying to provoke Israel into breaking the ceasefire agreement. This has been compounded by new reports suggesting that one of the bodies received was not that of Shiri Bibas, with the military unable to identify the body.
Not only are these optics particularly heinous and cruel, but Hamas is playing a shrewd game by giving the impression that its battalions are very much intact, and that the IDF has totally failed in its mission. Although thousands of Hamas fighters have been killed since October 2023, and much of their arsenal of weapons and tunnel network destroyed, the visual evidence of the past few weeks suggest that the group remains far from defeated. According to a recent report from US intelligence, Hamas has recruited between 10,000 and 15,000 new members since the start of the conflict.
Of course, most of those will be young, untrained, and unequipped — for now, at least. Assuming that the ceasefire holds, the extent to which Hamas poses a threat to Israel in the future will depend less on its ability to recruit than on how well it can rearm. Given the end of the Assad regime in Syria, the humbling of Hezbollah, and the broader tactical and strategic weakening of Iran, it is unlikely that Hamas will soon recoup its lost weaponry or be able to swiftly commence rebuilding the destroyed tunnels.
Despite receiving military and logistical assistance in the past, much of this was done before the death of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, killed by an American drone in Baghdad in January 2020. Today, with Soleimani gone and Iran on the back foot — hamstrung by its deteriorating economy, loss of important allies, and the apparent destruction of its air defence systems — it is unlikely that Hamas will be resupplied from the outside any time soon.
Nonetheless, part of the current ceasefire and hostage release plan entails Israel giving up the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt. If the IDF moves out, then smuggling via tunnels under the Egyptian border may yet provide Hamas a way to rearm.
This is one of the reasons why it is hard to see the ceasefire lasting through stages two and three, since it would be so difficult militarily and politically for Israel to give up such important strategic positions.
And then there is the issue of Donald Trump. It was Trump who ordered the assassination of Soleimani in 2020, and his appointment of committed supporters of Israel to key positions — Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and Elise Stefanik at the UN — coupled with his recent comments about “cleaning out” Gaza, suggests he is in no mood to see Hamas regroup.
Perhaps his wild comments about Egypt and Jordan accepting Palestinian refugees are part of a ploy to force Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to go to greater lengths to prevent smuggling from his side of the border. Either way, the impact of visual images on Trump is well known, and seeing the hostage release videos is unlikely to mollify his attitude to Gaza. Therefore, while Hamas may have survived for now, it is not hard to see a further Israeli offensive unfolding — this time with the enthusiastic rather than reluctant support of the US.
David Swift is a historian and author. His next book, Scouse Republic, is available to pre-order now.
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SubscribeOn that last point, let’s hope so. Israel clearly has more work to do. And how much longer can Qatar remain unpunished?
‘Nice gasfield you got there, Qataris. Shared with Iran, isn’t it. Shame if anything happened to it’
Make Doha Gaza
Psycho
Tough talk from don harris.
Psycho.
Who will punish Israel for murdering 100k people? That’s a lot of human shields!
Are you real or a bot?
Out of 2.2m inhabitants, a tiny percentage. Hardly “genocide”.
Would you say ethnic cleansing was the goal all along or not?
It’s not my interpretation.
Geneva accords.
But the accords could have been Jew haters too. You never know.
Who will punish the liars, and the idiots who repeat the lies, about Israel committing genocide?
Every person who has died in this tragic war has died because of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
Total gaslighting. Yes, they forced Israel into atrocities. Look at gaza imbecile.
God Will. But not,like,right now.
Need a lot more bombing. On them
Look at GI Jane and the tough talk.
Yeah! Bomb em!! Keyboard warrior.
This is worrisome on a number of levels. What is Hamas trying to accomplish here. Are they trying to commit collective suicide for themselves and the rest of the Palestinians in Gaza? How else can we explain a deliberate attempt to antagonize a vastly more powerful enemy who has, by Hamas’ own accounts, already killed tens of thousands of people and could resume killing at any point. Laying aside the moral justifications of either side, this is objectively stupid. If one is being robbed at gunpoint, it would seem poor strategy to taunt and belittle the robber if one values one’s own life. Perhaps that’s the problem. If a people prioritizes it’s moral imperatives over its actual survival, the results are fairly predictable. The only other explanation is that Hamas is willing to spend any number of the lives of their own people in a play for sympathy, so somebody in the Arab world or anywhere else will intervene on their behalf since they have no power to fight Israel themselves. If that is what is happening, it is sinister beyond anything contemplated by the Israelis. Offering one’s own citizens up for slaughter in a bid to garner sympathy and gain the assistance of foreign powers is evil of a kind rarely witnessed. There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and as disgusting as it is to ignore the suffering of others, this is the time to do so. The suffering of the Palestinians must be ignored because it is being used as a tool by perpetrators of the worst kind of evil. I do not absolve the Israelis of all bad conduct in the war, and their approach can be criticized as haphazard, inefficient, and poorly planned, but mistakes happen in warfare, and this conflict can only be understood as warfare. The casualties in Gaza are, so far as I see, the clear consequence of Hamas fighting a war of choice against Israel. I lay the lion’s share of the blame at the feet of those who chose to incite conflict.
It is pretty stupid unless Hamas are not really Hamas.
The only thing standing between Hamas and being wiped out is the civilian population of Gaza. That is why Trump is talking about moving the civilian population out of the IDF’s way.
The civilian population. Some seem to have a Pollyannaish view of this “civilian population”. Check out this article to better understand what they actually want from a poll conducted by Cambridge.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-gazans-want
The long running myth of a Western style “civilian population” who simply wants to live in peace needs to be extinguished if this conflict is to end someday.
and large swathes of the Labour Party think its a good idea to rehouse these psychopaths in the UK!
You sound like the English parliaments talking about the Jews in 1906.
Well played.
One only had to read of the reception their “conquering heroes” received when returning to Gaza on 7th October, bearing live or dead bodies of raped and mutilated women. All the usual ululation and singing accompanied by spitting on and abuse of the hostages. These are not “civilians” as we saw civilians in WW2 but a whole people drowning in hate. Some will have been casualties to save their Hamas masters but some surely must have wondered what was the long term use of all the killing.
USA state established in order to destabiise the Middle East with political and economic ie financial takeover the goal. It’s a long game. It’s not even been a hundred years yet,thats nothing in long game terms.
Isn’t easier to just say ethnically cleanse Gaza? Have the stones to say it.
Pretty much every democratic country on Earth has come about through ethnic cleansing. It’s what constitutes a nation state. Why deny reality.
The US has an aboriginal population in the millions, as well as a population descended from, mostly, formerly enslaved people.
However, considerable conflict was involved in integrating them into our society, including two of the five wars fought on our soil.
Palestinians do not need to be “ethnically cleansed” if they’re able to accept Jewish neighbors. It is also true that many Palestinians wish for Israelis to be ethnically cleansed from the Levant.
Oh ok. Liam F is saying it’s the norm.
So, if they are “democratic” then cleanse away?
So Islamic countries get to cleanse and slaughter non-moslems from their countries and that is cool. But Israelis defending themselves, or God forbid, the West wanting to remain…the West…is wicked according to the Martins of the world.
Nope. Simplistic. You’re ok with ethnic cleansing? Who’s talking about the west? Remember when “the west” went and colonised countries. You were a fan of that too??
Just because they both think exactly the same way still doesnt make it right for one side to eliminate the other
I’ll proudly say it. Any people who live on earth solely to kill others needs to be eliminated in a sane world. Do you have the stones to say they should be allowed to continue their rampage for another 2,000 years?
A quote in response to seeing the coffins of 2 little captured Jewish children being paraded for the world to see and to contemplate their deaths at the hands of Hamas:
“As unbearable as it is, we must imagine that moment, because the ultimate indecency—the most indecent form of comfort—would be to close our eyes and refuse to see.“
Who’s rampaging? Hamas? Backyard rockets and kites. They terrorise because they are a guerilla army.
The children? How many have been squashed into the soil? Do you think Israel give a flying F about the remains of the thousands of children it has obliterated? All this moral posing about the noble ones and the savages.
Yes, the Hamas handing over of the remains is not my cup of tea, but do you find the whole families of 12 eliminated because daddy may have been Hamas or talked to a few of them ? Do you have moral outrage at that? Wilfully murdering innocents?
These people have died a) because Hamas followed by scores of “innocent ” civilians invaded their neighbour, killing, raping and taking them hostage and b) because Hamas systematically refuses their civilians access to shelter in their tunnels. It is Hamas’s fault that they are dead.
Another “history started on October 7th” goon. Before Oct 7 hundreds of innocents had been murdered by Israel. Yknow, those terrifying rock throwers. Year after year. Israel are the colonisers. Israel has stolen land and continue to in the West Bank. What should the Palestinians do? Just take the murder of their children and carry on. What would you do brave Unherd reader?
The world has witnessed Israel perpetrate 15 months of the most sadistic violence ever caught on film and you ghouls come out to condemn a coffin procession?
The Narcissism is next level.
Really.
Where were all the condemnations when the “most moral army in the world” was putting on the lingerie of Palestinian women as they blew up their houses? Crickets. Or when shoot unarmed youths dead for the crime of walking along a beach?
Moral frauds.
Martin represents an historical illiteracy only matched by bigotry.
Who’s the bigot?
All these posts calling for the obliteration of the Palestinians and even Qatar!! Have is said Israel or the Jews should be abolished? No. That’s European talk history midget.
It is interesting that those supportingberadication of Israel seldom, just like some Germans in the 1930s and 40s, actually honestly discuss how they plan to achieve the desired eradication.
He’s our #1 Hamastitute!
Ate too many Maccy D whoppers.
Hamas fails to correctly identify one body. Israel dumps 100s of unidentified bodies in bags onto the street.
Western media treats Palestinians like animals.
And it’s not even Hamas,those black clad jerks are USA CIA agents. Big burly bastards like that. And it’s all stage managed. Moving up a level. We are not crying enough when.fit healthy attractive young women looking like they’ve been on vacation on Hawaii get released,smile for the camera girls. Aw,two little girls, blue eyed,blonde? aw dear little poppets. And what happened to Mommy? We’ll make you heartless beasts cry.
Hamas? Really? This whole pantomime is so stage managed. But then the CIA are good casting agents and set designers.
It’s the Palestinians who want to ethnically cleanse the area… of Jews. Other Arab states are willing to make peace and live with Israel in the Middle East.
Not really. Very sensible. The local Indian tribe had decided to kill the Pilgrims on the beach. If only they had. But ONE of their tribe preached compassion and mercy at them and prevailed. Look how that ended. Nietzsche had it right.
Hahahah. Oh my god. Those violent natives!! Yes, the British empire was all about compassion and Christianity. GI Jane is full flight!
Jane, good luck with the mech needed psychiatric intervention.
Yeah, only with a Palestinian state though. Like the whole world has been calling for for 50 years now.
Suggesting the civilians be moved out of harm’s way is hardly “ethnically cleansing”, is it? Do have some perspective, or would you rather they stayed in the firing line down to the last man, woman and child just to prove how brave they are?
Oh so they are going to be able to come back to Gaza, after the tidy up?
Look at the great PR ethnic cleansing has these days. Formidable. Moronic, but formidable. What have trump and and smotrich and bibi said? Listen to them.
Wow. Insight.
What BS. If not eliminated and Gaza empty, they will rearm. Turkey and corrupt Egyptians can do it
So many third reich language fans here.
My guess from the countries that wouldn’t accept Jews way back when.
“The latest images […] suggest that Hamas is deliberately trying to provoke Israel into breaking the ceasefire agreement.”
No need. Hamas has already broken it.
How? By Israel not letting tents through?
Hamas provoking Israel and USA to action, but in the fairly certain knowledge that USA and Europe will strongly discourage Israel from acting. Once again, playing on the West’s suicidal ‘peace at all costs’ policy. Of course, we’ll act very strongly… a resolution at the UN, maybe even sanctions on a couple of people… Ooooo, shudder with fear! BACK ISRAEL to finish the job!
How many more kids you want dead?
Depends how many Hamas are prepared to put in harms way, by continuing to provoke Israel.
None! You don’t save innocent people by placating murders.
How many dead Jewish kids do Hamas want? Every one of them.
Don’t we all.
Israel wants fewer children dead than Hamas wants children dead. Hamas leaders are willing to continue their dreams of Iranian funded genocide to the last child of Gaza.
USA and Europe will strongly discourage Israel from acting.
I am coming to the conclusion that Hamas are congenitally stupid and incapable of “reading the room”-I doubt they foresaw the ferocity of Israels reaction to 7/10 and they don’t appear to have noticed that “there’s a new sheriff in town” and phase 2 of this war ,may make the last 15 months seem like a garden party.
That’s because the Hamas we see or hear of are CIA operatives creating a narrative in order to justify extending and intensifying the conflict or the shooting fish in a barrel to be more accurate.
More likely to get some peace now Biden has been shown the door.
It’s NOT Hamas,it’s CIA operatives playing the oppositional role in order to extend and justify the endless conflict.
Iran is paying, training and supplying Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas flirted with/hustled many groups. Iran’s imperialists were the best fit.
How many armed militias, Muslim and otherwise – think Syria – has the great western powers supported and armed?
The simpler explanation, and somewhat in accordance with Hanlon’s Razor Principle, is that incompetence rather than deviousness is what led Hamas to put the wrong body in the coffin they handed over to the Red Cross. I appreciate that a stench of humbug permeates this albeit partial attempt to absolve Hamas. Nonetheless, isn’t it plausible that either they had already disposed of Ms. Bibas’s remains, or else they were in too shocking a condition thanks to Hamas’s earlier depredations, and that the substitution of another body was the mark of hapless “passing off” rather than something (even) more devious?
I appreciate that you’re attempting to be charitable, but in relation to the second plausible excuse you note, if the remains were in ‘too shocking a condition’ then it would still constitute a purposeful breach of the ceasefire conditions.
Hamas’ treatment of the October 7 hostages is a matter of public record, so substituting remains is not forgivable – very few but the most optimistic anticipated many surviving hostages after 15 months.
Is Hamas deserving of your charitable interpretation of their actions after their behaviour to date?
I’m not attempting to be charitable. I think Hamas are utterly disgusting, and the useful idiots supporting them in the West are beneath contempt. I’m merely trying to point out that their behaviour in relation to the substitution of Mrs Bibas’s remains is symptomatic not so much of fiendish cunning as of a pathetic and abject attempt at cover-up.
Watching the reactions from the US and around the world since Team Trump went to work has been very instructive. Sure, there’s been some clumsy, bullish and hyperbolic actions and statements that already have or will be walked back or toned down so as not to let the kettle boil dry.
However IMO much of the anti-Trump hysterics and doom prophecies from the establishment (I think it’s called Deep State now) are borne out of a realization that their lies don’t work anymore. Not the lies they’ve told us but even more disheartening, the lies they’ve told themselves.
One big lie I’ve heard for most of my adult life is that decades of successive ME leaders have been beavering away at untying the Gordian Knot that will make way for the promised land of the Two State Solution. It has often appeared tantalizingly close until derailed by a terrorist act and the usual Israeli response. The co-opted mandarins at the UN sigh that the former may be unfortunate (understandable but unfortunate) and then rage that the latter is unconscionable. Rinse and repeat. I’m not an ME scholar but I’m not buying this lie anymore and apparently neither is Trump. “Peace” to the Palestinians always has/always meant a One State solution – No Israel. Who knows how many billions of Iranian proxy cash and UN “aid funds” have been funneled to Hamas for this purpose. Israel has always known that but played the game of western-generated peace deals anyway for their obvious financial support reasons.
Well I think the Palestinians were correct and a One State solution is needed – just not the one they were dreaming of.
Who are these “Palestinians” anyway. Apparently a hodgepodge of Arabs from various nearby countries who happened to be living in a certain area at a certain date in history. Now everyone wants to get on the bandwagon of ever-lasting refugee status. Whoever thought that one up for them deserves medal. Why has it never been offered to any of the millions of other refugees?
Gaza and the so called ‘peace process’ is one mighty sham as it is clear to me that it’s impossible to reconcile Hamas and Israel therefore other options have to be considered. It must be faced the Palestinians have proved themselves incapable of governing what is now a shit-hole and so as night follows day the place has to be razed to the ground and rebuilt and governed by a party with at least a modicum of competence. If there are other Arab nations who care enough then they should be coming forward with ideas otherwise the solution has to be Trump’s seemingly far fetched ,but quite brilliant resort plan.
It is the Israelis, in Particular Netanyahu, who want to derail the ceasefire. Without the war starting up again, Netanyahu’s government will collapse and he could face a prison term for corruption.
It was an Israeli bomb that killed that family, and one can only imagine the mess left by it, so it is little wonder they found the wrong body. It was not done deliberately, unlike the bombing that killed them.
I see many of the herd of racists who comment on Unherd support the Idea of extermination and ethnic cleansing. A bit like the Nazis in the 1940s
Surely you mean Hamas, whose constitution demands the ethnic cleansing and extermination of all Jews? Sounds very much Nazi-like to me.
Makes shit up.
Calls those who disagree with him racist.
Got some Nazi stuff too.
Perfect.
FF shows up on cue to demonstrate so well the meaning of “useful idiot”.
You. Reader, and all these other psychos on this thread are indeed Israel’s useful idiots. Flapping about a funeral handover. The disrespect!! Meanwhile hundreds of children are left in bags or are still under the rubble.
I’m really amazed and the absolute racist mania on Unherd. So much bloodlust. So brave. I’ll bet you all have yr little general hats on.
I believe that Unherd comments section has been comprised by professional Israeli propaganda efforts, as comments sections do influence public opinion, and it’s certainly not beyond their capabilities.
Don’t pay it too much mind. And if the comments are genuine, they’re the vocal minority of highly frustrated sad men who instead of looking at the true reasons why their country (and lives) is going downhill, take the easy option of blaming the poor brown people. So much easier to hate Muslims than it is to do the hard work of assessing how the loss of faith and globalization has destroyed their formerly beautiful Britain.
So glad i don’t live in the uk anymore.
Each and every child that has died in Gaza since 07 October died as fodder by the Iranian/Hamas war machine.
Forensic examination apparently showed that the family were killed ‘by hand’ (to quote the report), and then the bodies beaten to make it look (unsuccessfully) as though they died from bombing.
The inhumanity of someone still defends Hamas after this iatest information is problematic.
Thank you, Hamass, for breaking the ceasefire with this recent reprehensible display of barbarity; this way, Netanyahu has a reason to destroy Hamas completely.
Double O moron.
A close look at the photo accompanying this article reveals the following slogan:
“The Return of War = The Return of Your Prisoners in Coffins”
This adds further weight to the forensic team’s assessment that the hostages – an old man, a young child and a baby – were murdered by their captors.
Look,I know it’s real people. I know it’s callous and insensitive to say this but it’s all a bloody pantomime. That being a very appropriate adjective. This Hostages media feed garbage is totally out out on media to f**k UP OUR MINDS. Why do we need to know? It should be a private matter for the families and the Israeli political administration should be silently,tactfully and discreetly negotiating in a calm and polite manner. I don’t CARE ONE TINY FIG about these hostages. Why would I? I don’t know them. I dont know the families. And I don’t BELIEVE the narrative anyway. When “hostages” get “released” and they DO NOT LOOK like they’ve been in a tunnel at risk of carpet bombing for two years it’s so obvious this whole set to is a fake coming straight out of Benjamin Netanyahus arse where most of his words come from,bloody dodgy used car seller Yid,mittel European Macthe knifer in the dark alleys of old Vienna. Yeah,I mean YOU,Bibi. Spawn of Satan. Those black clad Hamas punching the air. Big healthy looking males,lotta muscle on em. AMERICAN.AMERUCAN. That’s a recognisably AMERICAN Body Shape. And AMERICAN confidence. The ‘Hamas’ holding the hostages are an ‘Israeli’ ie Jew invention and this constant dribble is just to keep out minds niggled and a bit discombobulated. It’s not MY business so I don’t need to know about it. And in fact I avoid all news sources most of the time now but the odd bit slips through. Why do music stations have to have news updates anyway. I’m capable of tuning into a news channel if I want to know.
That’s a helluva rant Jane. Like a free jazz solo.
Unherd, your comments section has been taken over by professional Zionist propaganda efforts. That’s quite a problem to solve if you want to be taken seriously.
But giving the green light to articles like this is unforgivable. Everyone knows it was Israeli airstrikes on the tunnels that killed their own hostages, but Swift doesn’t even mention it. Unbelievable.
Siding with the psychopath Netanyahu…
The Gaza ceasefire appears to have been put in place so Trump could focus on cleaning house in the U.S. However, before he could engage any Israel conflict—an issue that typically dominates American attention—he needed to address internal challenges first.
The way Trump is dismantling key institutions within the federal such as FBI, CIA, and even the military suggests that while America may still be willing to sell weapons to Israel, its support may have limits among Trump supporters. Internally, the U.S. may not be prepared for Israel to engage in a prolonged war of attrition (honestly one thing that is consistent in Trump – he hates wars). My sense is that Israel might not have the full backing from America that many assume. Instead of maintaining an offensive strategy as an option, Israel may be forced to adopt a more defensive stance moving forward.
My biggest concern is that Israel’s traditionally strong position may be undermined by internal shifts in the U.S. as Trump continues his aggressive restructuring of government institutions—institutions that are essential for sustaining prolonged wars. Additionally, his approach toward Russia and the increasingly silent stance of China lately suggest that Israel’s once-dominant influence on U.S. foreign policy may be weakening due to the imminent economic issues arising on the continent.