Evil of Hamas propaganda videos

It would be hard to imagine anything more despicable or demanding of global outrage than Hamas’s callous distribution of prerecorded videos of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered last weekend after each had been shot in the back of the head, execution-style. It is bad enough that the barbaric terrorists, in issuing the videos, chose to add immeasurably to the heartbreak and agony of families and loved ones of the six innocents – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40, and; Almog Sarusi, 27 – who did no more than attend the October 7 Supernova music festival that was at the epicentre of Hamas’s slaughter of 1200 Jews or, in the case of Gat, visit parents at Kibbutz Be’eri. No less horrifying, and symptomatic of what Hamas is all about was the terrorists’ warning as they issued the videos that they were just a “teaser” ahead of more to come, with the terrorists saying they would issue “last messages” from the hostages recorded before they were killed in cold blood.

Not since the darkest days of the horrors of Islamic State’s so-called caliphate, with its barbaric on-camera beheadings, has the world seen anything more horrifying, and it is imperative that the global community is clear-eyed about the depths of Hamas’s intolerable depravity 11 months into the Gaza war. The Hamas savages may believe that by behaving in this depraved way they are furthering the cause of achieving a free Palestine. But they could not be more wrong. All they are doing is making things even harder for the sensible centre on both sides of the Middle East conflict that wants to see a negotiated settlement leading to a two-state solution to the crisis.

Hamas would do well to heed the views of Israeli Knesset member Dan Illouz who, in The Jerusalem Post on Monday, wrote of the execution of the six hostages: “In the face of such evil, surrender is simply not an option … The question we must confront today is not whether to bow to Hamas’s demands but how to respond with such overwhelming force that all our enemies will understand: Jewish blood is not cheap, and those who dare to spill it will pay an unbearable price.”

Like Islamic State when it was gleefully carrying out decapitations on camera, Hamas doubtless will seek to make the most of alleged statements by its victims before they were executed. The statements are certain to add further to the unbearable pain of the victims’ families and friends. But they need to be seen in the context in which they were made. Hamas deserves nothing less than total condemnation by the civilised world for its barbaric actions.

At the funeral in Jerusalem on Monday of Goldberg-Polin, Israeli President Isaac Herzog apologised to the murdered hostages for the state’s failure to bring them home alive. “Beloved Hersh, with a torn and broken heart I stand here today as the President of the state of Israel, bidding you farewell and asking for your forgiveness, from you, and from Carmel, from Eden, from Almog, from Alex and Ori, and from all your loved ones. I apologise on behalf of the state of Israel that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of October 7, that we failed to bring you home safely.”

Mr Herzog was right to apologise. But the challenge of Hamas’s barbarity – with innocent music festival-goers shot in the back of the head and the terrorists seeking to make propaganda from their executions – is bigger than just Israel. It is despicable savagery that has no place in a world that claims to be civilised. No less than Israel, the Palestinian cause is itself a victim of the terrorists’ savagery and gross disregard for basic human decency.