Israel has vowed to “settle the score” with Hamas after the terrorist group staged a highly publicized parade during Thursday’s hostage exchange, using the event to spread propaganda and place blame on Israel and the United States for the deaths of four captives. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the nation’s is grieving sorrow the loss of the hostages.
The bodies of all the four hostages that were paraded before being handed over to Israel also included the corpse of Kfir Bibas, the youngest captive who was taken at just nine months old. Netanyahu also issued a stern warning to Hamas, making it clear that Israel will retaliate with vengeance.
Netanyahu Vows Revenge
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“We are all outraged at the Hamas monsters,” Netanyahu said on X. “The voice of our dear ones’ blood cries out to us from the ground. “It requires us to settle accounts with the depraved murderers – and we will settle the score with them,” he added.
The brutal treatment sparked global condemnation, including from Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, who denounced the display as “a disgrace to Islam.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referenced Psalm 94, declaring, “O God of vengeance, O Lord; O God, show vengeance.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz echoed the outrage, vowing that Hamas will face consequences for its actions. “Hamas abducted, Hamas murdered, Hamas will be destroyed,” he posted on X. “We will take revenge against our enemies, and secure our future.”
Ruby Chen, a New Yorker still awaiting the return of his son Itay’s body from Gaza, denounced the event as proof that Hamas has “no dignity” toward the captives.
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Chen compared the images from Gaza to acid being poured on an open wound and urged the global community, particularly Saudi Arabia, to condemn Hamas’ actions. The display has even drawn criticism from the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, joining the international outrage, according to JFeed.
“What we saw today in Gaza is a disgrace to Islam, an act of blasphemy against Allah, and a sin that does not represent the followers of the Prophet, peace be upon him, or the honorable religion of Islam,” Al-Sheikh said in a statement.
Disgrace to Human Civilization
The heartbreaking exchange saw the militant group return the bodies of young hostages Kfir and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel Bibas, who were brutally taken, along with their mother, 33-year-old Shiri, and 84-year-old Lifshitz.
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Their coffins were put on display in Khan Younis against a disturbing backdrop featuring a mural of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a bloodthirsty vampire. The image showed him towering over pictures of the Bibas family and Lifshitz, with a propaganda message blaming their deaths on American weapons.
Hillel Fuld, whose Israeli-American journalist brother was fatally stabbed by a terrorist in the West Bank in 2018, said he was not surprised by the grotesque spectacle.
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“It’s shocking to me that anyone was shocked by the satanic parade that we saw today in Gaza. This is Hamas,” Fuld, a 45-year-old Queens native who lives in Israel, told The New York Post. “This was always Hamas. After today, mothers will stop telling their children that there is no such thing as monsters.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which helped transfer the bodies from Gaza, denounced the exhibition, saying that it violated the dignity of the victims and the rights of their families to grieve in peace.
“We have unequivocally clarified that any release — of living hostages or ones that are no longer alive — must be carried out respectfully and privately,” the ICRC said following the display.
