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Updated Google Maps shows destruction of the city of Rafah

943 points · 947 comments · slowin

saturn_vk · 1790616232 · focus · HN ↗
It's sad that most world leaders do nothing to combat such genocide. There are so few sanctions against the state, or specific people, of Israel. Foreign forums are very much still open for business to them.
1. bamboozled · 1790636445 · focus · HN ↗
  What do you think world leaders should've done differently?
  1. cogman10 · 1790637983 · focus · HN ↗
    A lot.
    Literally on Oct 7, Hamas tried to return civilian hostages, who the IDF killed. This is why Hamas changed policies to only give up hostages through 3rd parties. They reached out to israel to try and return hostages and were ignored. They reached out to the US to return hostages and were ignored. [1]
    So for starters, the US could have pressured Israel to negotiate with Hamas to return the hostages.
    As Israel started to show genocidal intent (for example, killing aide workers multiple times). The US could have at a minimum threaten to withhold aide. In fact, there are laws on the books that a country such as Israel committing war crimes is ineligible for aide.
    Finally, the UN should have deployed peace keepers to gaza specifically to stop the genocide.
    Actions could have been taken, but they weren't because our politicians are so bribed by Israeli lobby money as to turn a complete blind eye to it's misdeeds.
    [1] <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-politics/2026-09-15/ty-article/.premium/hostage-families-release-list-of-govt-decisions-preceding-oct-7/000001a0-a521-dea8-afe0-e5adef4a0000" rel="nofollow">https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-politics/2026-09-...
    hamsteredf · 1790640340 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    cogman10 · 1790641356 · focus · HN ↗
    Oh look, brand new account doing hasbara. Where have we seen this before? Are you a part of Israel's $1B spent on online propaganda? [1]
    I cited my source. But there were also sources in October 2023 about Hamas wanting to return the hostages. The Haaretz articles reveal that it was privately even earlier than expected and the Netanyahu was warned of the attack in advance yet he chose to do nothing about it.
    Why not just drop them off? Well for 1 they actually wanted the hostages to get home alive. The IDF didn't care about killing hostages as they relentlessly bombed the region.
    Why not let the Red Cross see them? Because the IDF was closely watching and, shocker, if you take someone directly to the hostages guess what building gets blown up next?
    > They kept them locked up and starving.
    What a strange lie. Yes they were locked up but the hostages themselves reported that Hamas treated them well. Why wouldn't they? They aren't Israel who anally rapes their hostages [2]. The Israeli government would LOVE for Hamas to have mistreated the hostages. But alas, this is just projection.
    [1] <a href="https://quincyinst.org/research/the-eighth-front-inside-israels-1-billion-influence-campaign/" rel="nofollow">https://quincyinst.org/research/the-eighth-front-inside-isra...
    [2] <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-detention-base.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/world/middleeast/israel-g...
    monideas · 1790664585 · focus · HN ↗
    Essentially your point is that Hamas protected the hostages from the IDF by not returning them.
    This is abject insanity and it’s a good representation of what is going on in the minds of most of humanity.
    someonebaggy · 1790681212 · focus · HN ↗
    Are they wrong? On October 7, Hamas released three hostages. Israel shot and killed the hostages, so Hamas said they won't release any more hostages without some kind of security deal. That sounds like protecting them to me.
    halflife · 1790689852 · focus · HN ↗
    That is completely incorrect. The terrorists that were put in charge of these hostages fled and left them alone in a war zone. They were definitely NOT released.
    They were killed because of mistaken identity, which is horrible, but it happens in war, some IDF soldiers died from friendly fire.
    Hamas definitely didn’t ask protection for the hostages, they asked protection for themselves.
    There are many hostages reports of Hamas terrorists saying to hostages that if IDF will draw near, they will shoot the hostages.
    someonebaggy · 1790690849 · focus · HN ↗
    They accidentally sniped the naked guy holding a white flag and shouting in Hebrew?
    halflife · 1790701174 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, because Hamas routinely does that to lure IDF soldiers.
    Let’s use occams razor hear.
    Option A - mistaken identity because the enemy wears no uniform, embeds itself in civilians, and uses inhumane tactics to confuse IDF soldiers (like putting explosives on dead bodies, placing speakers with hostages recording as bait)
    Option B - IDF decided to kill the hostages they came to rescue for some evil reason
    someonebaggy · 1790714917 · focus · HN ↗
    Awfully convenient for them that whenever a hostage gets released they can just say "whoopsie" and justify it as they thought it was a lure.
    halflife · 1790726296 · focus · HN ↗
    It happened once.
    And I see you’re sticking with the “evil IDF just decided to kill these 3 hostages without any reason” plot.

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