"After Hamas terrorists pulled her clothes off, they started to rape her. After one raped her, he took a knife and killed her."
"After he did it, he continued to rape the dead body. They were laughing. They always laughed."
Raz Cohen, October 7 survivor
"We fought all through the years for social justice, for peace."
"To my sorrow, we were hit by a terrible blow by those we helped on the other side."
"I stand here staggered to see the number of graves, and the terrible destruction of our community that was completely abandoned on October 7."
Yocheved Lifshitz at funeral of husband Oded
The residents of the kibbutzim that became targets when thousands of Palestinian terrorists flooded across the border from Gaza to southern Israel, were known for their activism on behalf of alleviating the lives of Palestinian civilians living in Gaza. The farming communities employed Palestinians as farm labourers, giving them jobs when employment was scarce in Gaza, and giving them wages that jobs in Gaza, if available, could not match. Relations between the kibbutz residents and the Palestinians were civil; they broke bread together in the kibbutz dining halls.
When the kibbutzim were raided by armed Hamas, PLFP and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists on that dreadful day of savage infamy on October 7, among the terrorists were ordinary Palestinian, teens and men, some of whom knew those kibbutz environs intimately. People who had drawn helpful maps for the terrorists showing them where the security buildings were so those tasked to protecting the kibbutz could be dispatched first to enable the raiders to get on with their business of slaughter and rape unimpeded.
The years spent driving Gazans to medical appoints within Israel, taking children for cancer treatments, did not result in reciprocal care from the Palestinians to the Israelis who succoured them. Israelis who believed that they and the Palestinians could live in peace, trust one another, even if their leaders vowed otherwise. Israelis who passionately supported the idea of a 'two-state solution' despite the never-ending terrorist attacks; that once Palestinians had a state of their own they would accept the presence of Israel.
That dream is dead, as dead as the 1,200 Israelis who were slaughtered that day. As dead as the hostages who suffered through 500 impossibly evil incarceration days, as valuable possessions to be traded for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails for committing violent acts against Israelis -- those hostages who were returned to Israel in those mocking, jeering exchanges, who had died or had been killed during their brutal internment.
Age and gender made no difference. Torment and anguish was perpetrated against the helpless in the clutches of those whose fuming hatred for Jews knew no bounds. Hatred so intense that entire families died in their torched homes on that fateful day of marauding terrorism. Children abducted with their parents or separated from their fathers and taken with their terrified mothers to Gaza, as were elderly and ill men and women. An infant of ten months and his four-year-old brother strangled to death with bare hands, both bodies mutilated for the fiction of having been killed in an Israeli bombing over Gaza.
A mourner at the grave of
hostages Shiri Bibas, Kfir Bibas and Ariel Bibas after their funeral on
February 26, 2025, in Tzohar, Israel. 2025 Amir Levy/Getty Images
When the hostages were released by Hamas to the Red Cross for transfer to Israel they were first surrounded by squads of masked, heavily armed Hamas terrorists, the route along which they travelled packed with cheering Palestinians. The staged events on the release of the hostages were celebratory events of victory by terrorists over the state of Israel; the death of Jews marking the superiority of a death cult over respect for human life.
Men who were released spoke of being held in the vast underground tunnel network in Gaza, legs shackled, the irons cutting into their flesh, and maddening hunger. The Bibas family had taken shelter in the safe room of their house hearing the shouts of 'Allahu akbar!' all around them. Parents Yarden and Shiri in desperate consultation decided they would fight. Yarden took his pistol and tried to protect his family. He was placed in a cage in a tunnel.
Yarden, Shiri, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 10 months
Shiri Bibas, left with her infant boys could hear the terrorists trying break down the door of the safe room where she huddled with infant Ariel and baby Kfir. With the use of a hand drill they forced the handle open and the three were taken to Gaza. They lived for a month in captivity before being murdered. Yarden, the children's father was informed his family died in an Israeli airstrike. Finally released in an exchange, he believed his wife and children were alive and would soon join him in freedom.
There are still more hostages to be freed, both alive and dead. Hamas's mockery of the gaunt, starving hostages, in emotional upheaval, their minds traumatized, their bodies in various stages of shutting down, mark the terrorists' passionate commitment to death, revelling in the violence their savage atrocities identify their mission of destruction by. And these are the death-dealers that hordes of supporters in the West glorify.
"Dear
President Trump, first of all we want to say thank you for the happy
moments we felt this week. But we want to tell you we still have 94
hostages, we need them all at home."
"Please do not stop. Please continue to press and do everything so that all the 94 hostages will come home immediately."
Ayelet Samerano, Israeli mother of hostage Yonatan Samerano
Israeli female soldier hostages Naama Levy, Daniella Gilboa, Karina
Ariev and Liri Albag seen on a stage set up by Hamas in front of a
Palestinian crowd before being handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza
City, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar)
On
Saturday, four members of the Israeli military, taken hostage by Hamas
terrorists on 7 October 2023 during a horrific orgy of mass rape,
mutilations,and mass murder, were released finally from their ordeal as
captive prisoners held in Gaza by Hamas operatives. They were all four
female soldiers: Karina Ariev, 20; Danielia Gilboa,20; Naama Levy, 20;
and Liri Albag, 19.
Naama
Levy captured the world's attention, her plight seen through
photographs and video footage taken by bodycams worn by Hamas operatives
as they documented their horrific abuse of Israeli citizens in border
farming communities by thousands of Palestinian terrorists prowling
through villages killing and raping and looting, laying waste to the
villages, burning entire families alive in their homes, hunting down
youthful revellers at a nearby music festival, and taking hundreds of
children, women, elderly and soldiers hostage into Gaza.
One
of those soldiers was Naana Levy, seen in the trunk of a car and
ordered into another one, her pants bloodied, hands tied behind her
back, ankles bleeding, deliberately slashed to keep her from attempting
to flee her captors who had raped and mutilated her. Seven female
members of the Israel Defense Forces had been taken prisoner that day,
from the Nahal Oz military base. Their duty there was to serve as
lookouts.
Ori
Megidish, one of the seven, was rescued on October 30, 2023 in a raid
conducted by the IDF. Noa Marciano, 19, killed in Gaza, her body
repatriated on November 17, 2023. Among the 33 hostages named by the
Israeli government for release during the first phase of the temporary
ceasefire is the fifth female soldier, Agam Berger. Israel agreed to
free dozens of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails for terrorist
activities in exchange for the hostages.
Hamas terrirusts stormed the Nova festival on 7 October and killed hundreds
In
Israel's estimation, a third of the 94 Israeli hostages remaining in
Hamas hands in Gaza, are dead although Hamas has failed to release
agreed upon definitive information detailing how many of the Israelis
held captive remain alive, or listing the names of those who have died.
The initial phase of the ceasefire deal is to see 33 of the hostages
released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held prisoner in
Israel.
It
took 90 Palestinian prisoners to secure the release of the first three
Israeli hostages a week ago Sunday. Some 100 of the hostages had been
released through a brief ceasefire in November of 2023. Since then, the
bodies of around three dozen hostages have been recovered, and eight
hostages were rescued. "We cannot continue living in uncertainty. All hostages must return, and none of them has time left", cautioned Ayelet Samerano.
Naama Levy (L) is seen with her hands bound and with a bloodied face in
the newly released video footage, which was filmed by Hamas terrorists Hostages and Missing Families Forum
Palestinian Terrorists Feeling Entitled to Control the Outcome of their Savagery
"I want to remind the citizens of Israel that every time you eat
something or drink something, remember us, the hostages, who don’t have
the opportunity to enjoy food or water."
"My fear for my life is daily. The military efforts to
release me that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is selling you is
what will end up leading to my death."
"I can tell you I have become scared of the army. I am really afraid
of the moment the army might get to me, or blow up the place I am
located."
Alexander Troufanov
"[With
winter approaching], these hostages, who have been subjected to
horrific conditions of abuse, starvation and darkness for over a year,
face an increasing risk of losing their lives."
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum
"I am relieved to see my son alive, but I am very worried to hear what he is saying."
"I urge that every effort be made to secure his immediate release and
that of all other hostages."
"They have no time
left."
Yelena Troufanov
Russian-Israeli captive Alexander “Sasha” Trufanov seen in an undated
video released by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Source: Screenshot/X.
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@rheytah
The sadistic pleasure Palestinian terrorists enjoy in turning the
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There
were originally 254 Israeli infants, girls, women, men civilians, IDF
soldiers, migrant farm workers captured by Palestinian terrorists who
invaded southern Israel from Gaza with the specific purpose of looting,
mass rape, mutilations and murder on a grand scale. These terrified
people were taken hostage for the purpose of being used as 'trades' for
Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons, found guilty of crimes
of terror. The hostages have been deprived of liberty, daylight,
hygiene, adequate food provisions and have experienced humiliation and
torture, young women constantly raped. Many have died of privation, ill
health and others have been murdered.
Those
that are left, both dead and alive, are still viewed as prized caches
of human trade. Palestinians know well the penchant of Israelis to try
to move heaven and earth to secure the release of their people from the
tender claws of their enemies. It is not enough for the Palestinians who
in the greater majority fully support their terrorist groups, and
specifically Hamas that had governed Gaza in their exploits of murder,
rape and abduction of innocent children, the elderly, vulnerable women
and others to satisfy their own sense of implacable victimhood.
Those
holding the Israeli hostages enjoy the psychological warfare they
indulge in, a sadistic exercise in savagery outlawed by civilized
people, but perpetrated by those whose seething hatred is unappeasable
and do their utmost to cause suffering and anguish to the families,
friends, colleagues of those helpless victims by staging scenarios where
their prisoners read from scripts given them in an obvious ploy to
manipulate those affected -- which to all effects, is every Israeli
citizen -- to spur efforts to demand of their government the acceptance
of Hamas's conditions for the release of the hostages.
Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, which along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, Hamas and ordinary Palestinian civilians had taken part in
the massacre of October 7, and the hostage-taking, released a video
meant as proof that the hostage being featured is not yet dead. In the
videos released by Hamas and PIJ, drawn and haggard victims plead with
their families, with their government to use all means to secure their
release. The terrorists hope that the end effect of these
heartstring-pulling exercises in pain for Israel, it can turn the
population against its government intent on destroying Palestinian
terror groups.
This
latest video featured Russian-Israeli hostage Alexander 'Sasha'
Troufanov, abducted during the terrorist attack of 2023 from his family
home, held captive for 404 days, in the Gaza Strip. This third video of
Sasha Troufanov has him stating that he and the other captives remaining
-- a hundred in number, but many no longer living -- and receiving
inadequate food, much less basic hygiene products, pleading for the
Israeli public to call for a hostage agreement. He expressed his fear of
being accidentally killed by Israeli Defense Forces on cue; not very
subtle, but quite effective.
The
29-year-old Troufanov was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, as was his
mother, Yelena Trouifanov; his grandmother Irena Tati, and his
girlfriend, Sapir Cohen. His father, Vitaly Troufanov was murdered
during the Nir Oz onslaught by Hamas as were 40 other residents of the
Kibbutz. Since the abduction his mother and grandmother were freed in
November of 2023, as requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin,
while Sapir Cohen was released in a ceasefire agreement the same month.
Hamas's Excruciating Game of Death and Sadistic Theatrics
"[Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh learned from personal imprisonment and subsequent release that] hostage diplomacy works."
"[Haniyeh's strategy is to] leverage hostages to extort concessions from Israel."
He's employing ISIS tactics in releasing videos and implicitly threatening to execute hostages if his demands are not met."
"Thus
far, hostages have been a massive miscalculation by Hamas, as Israel
has not relented and adheres to the common practice of not giving in to
hostage diplomacy, because that ends up putting more citizens at risk of
being kidnapped."
Canadian military academic Christian Leuprecht
"[The Hamas video releases represent] psychological warfare."
"It testifies to Hamas cruelty toward innocent, very elderly civilians who are in need of medical care."
"The world must act in order to deliver medical aid and check on the state of the hostages."
IDF spokesperson
The world watched in horror as a video emerged of Noa Argamani, 26,
sitting on the back of a motorbike as she screamed 'Don't kill me' to
the men surrounding her during Hamas's attacks on Israel on October 7 killing 340 Israelis at the Nova Music Festival
The
world has concerned itself over the welfare of Palestinians in Gaza
resulting from Israel's response to the barbarism enacted by Hamas,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad and ordinary Palestinian citizens who flooded
by their thousands into southern Israel, breaching the separation wall,
destroying outpost lookouts, killing the female detachment on duty, and
going on to slaughter over 1,400 civilian Israeli children, women, the
elderly and others. The Red Cross is usually tasked with delivering
humanitarian and medical aid, but its focus has been Palestinian
civilians not the Israeli hostages.
Hamas
continues to demonstrate its proficiency in achieving new lows in
savagely vile actions. Its video release of a "teaser" showing three of
the Israelis among the 136 still held by them and by PIJ and ordinary
Palestinian civilians was a deliberate act of sadism. In the video were
Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, the first
visions of the three their families have seen since they were abducted
on October 7. The three hostages are shown in the video speaking to the
camera.
Hamas released a video showing hostage Noa Argamani explaining how Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirski were killed in captivity
Urging
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war and bring them
home, it's clear they are all under duress, suffering and fearful,
repeating a script given to them by their captors, with no option but to
behave as instructed. They also state the conditions they are living
through are difficult. They lack food and water and state that they are
being held in places vulnerable to Israeli air strikes against Hamas
assets; their interminable tunnel system, control centers, commandeered
civilian structures.
When
the agonized video finally concludes there is a display of two lifeless
bodies, that of Sharabi and Svirsky. Argamani speaks to the camera,
that separate airstrikes killed her two companions, and she was herself
injured on her head and body by shrapnel, pleading for Israel to bring
all the hostages home. The first video was released Sunday evening with
the promise that Hamas was prepared to deliver a follow-up the next day.
Itai Svirski killed while being held captive by Hamas
The
Hamas chief Haniyeh is chairman of the political bureau of Hamas. His
safe place of residence is Qatar; he has amassed a personal fortune of
over $4 billion. From his safe distance he instructs his lieutenants
how to proceed in their dedication to destroying Israel. Hostage videos
are favourite vehicles for both ISIS and Hamas to draw attention, create
fear and to exert pressure on authorities. Hostage videos are used for
the purpose of threatening, demanding ransoms, or making political
statements.
According
to the latest exchanges between Hamas and Israeli officials, the number
of hostages still held in Gaza is unacknowledged because Hamas claims
it has lost track, adding that many of the hostages had been victimized
by Israeli air strikes, to account for the dead that Hamas might never
wish to reveal its responsibility for. The Sunday video release
coincided with the 100th day of the invasion of Gaza. The Hamas flair
for drama and death displays is second to none.
Yossi Sharabi allegedly killed after the building the hostages were housed in was hit by an Israeli airstrike
"All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins."
"Get out of there now."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
"[The
U.S.] stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist
assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full
stop."
"There's
never a justification for terrorist attacks and my administration's
support for Israel's security is rock solid and unwavering."
"This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching."
U.S. President Joe Biden
Israeli police officers evacuate a family from a site hit by a rocket
fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct.
7, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Hamas
terrorists stormed out of Gaza into nearby Israel towns, just over the
border, backed by a surprise barrage of rockets. They wantonly killed
hundreds of people, abducting many others. This is the second time in
Israel's history that an enemy bent on its destruction used the occasion
of a major Jewish holiday to launch a deadly attack. Israeli
intelligence is aware that the country is always on the brink of an
attack, a generalized perception born of experience. Yet it had no
advance warning, not a scintilla of a suspicion that a well-coordinated,
long-planned attack was immediately imminent.
And
the result was butchery on a grand scale, as residents of border towns
and soldiers at military posts were surprised and overwhelmed by hordes
of terrorists brandishing automatic rifles and shooting to kill. Killing
people in the streets, in their homes, in their cars, and ushering
others to waiting vehicles to drive them to Gaza as hostages. The
elderly were murdered and so were their grandchildren. Women and girls
were raped and tortured and many taken hostage as sex slaves.
Children
still in their infancy were separated from their parents and in Gaza
were harassed and bullied by older Palestinian children. The confused
and frightened babies were placed in stacked animal cages. Hamas's media
groups videoed all manner of scenes of gross abuse of Israelis, young
and old. Filming streets piled with the dead. Filming girls and women
who had been raped shoved into waiting cars. Filming elderly Jews being
directed to hold weapons as they were forced to pose. Filming the bloody
battering of people to death in ghastly footage.
And
filming the beheading of Israeli soldiers. Since an estimated 100
people, both military and civilian were abducted to be used as
prisoner-exchange collateral, it seems that some among them were
expendable for entertainment purposes to be tortured and mutilated and
slaughtered. Women gang-raped and butchered, their bodies mutilated.
Reminiscent of the publicity exploits of Islamic State when that
Islamo-terrorist group terrified the world in cruel barbarism.
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kibbutz
Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP
Photo/Hatem Ali)
Some
22 locations just outside the Gaza Strip across the border in Israel;
towns and other communities were assaulted by Hamas terrorists up to 24
kilometers from the border. The while, Israel's military desperately
scrambled to respond. Well after nightfall on Saturday the gun battles
between the IDF and Hamas continued. In two towns the terrorists held
hostages in standoffs with the military. In another town a police
station was occupied, taking until Sunday morning for the building to be
reclaimed.
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian from Kibbutz Kfar
Azza into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Thousands
of Israelis were wounded, and the last count of the dead stood at 700
and rising. Despite return bombing by the IDF in Gaza, fewer
Palestinians died in the heat of the conflict. In Gaza, Israeli
airstrikes intensified after nightfall with giant explosions taking down
buildings including Hamas offices in central Gaza City. As is the IDF's
habit, warnings to evacuate buildings went out before their
destruction.
A ball of fire and smoke rise from an explosion on a Palestinian
apartment tower following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Saturday,
Oct. 7, 2023. The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an
unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday,
firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas terrorists infiltrated the
heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and
catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
A
rocket barrage into Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a
suburb nearby. Hamas fired over 5,000 rockets. Terrorists made use of
explosives to break through the border fence separating Gaza from
Israel, enabling the terrorists to cross into Israel with motorcycles,
pickup trucks, paragliders and coastal speed boats. In some Israeli
towns, bodies lay wherever people had encountered the swiftly advancing
terrorists. Clusters of dead lay at bus shelters.
A
video was released showing hundreds of terrified young men and women
fleeing for their lives from a rave where they were listening to music
and dancing until Hamas terrorists entered the area and began firing.
Dozens of young Israelis were instantly killed. Photos by Associated Press
show an elderly woman brought into Gaze on a golf cart by Hamas
terrorists; another woman squeezed between two others on a motorcycle. AP journalists watched as four people were abducted from a kibbutz, including two women.
In
Gaza, a jeep rear door opened and a young Israeli woman stumbled out
bleeding from her head, her hands tied behind her back while a terrorist
waving a gun grabbed her by the hair and shoved her into the back seat.
Workers from Thailand and the Philippines were among the captives taken
by the terrorists. The expectation is that a ground assault will be
launched into Gaza. An eventuality that the Hamas terror is
anticipating.
The
greater the civilian casualties in Gaza among the civilian population,
the more publicity for Hamas claiming brutality and intention to murder
innocent Palestinians on the part of Israel. Claims that have never yet
failed them in arousing indignation among sympathizers to the
Palestinian 'cause' who believe the PA and Hamas's messages of Israeli
brutality against simple Palestinians who want nothing better than to
live their lives in peace and harmony with their neighbours.
An aerial view shows vehicles on fire as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon. Ilan Rosenberg/Reuters
"We really don’t know what happened. Anything is possible, the militants
might have panicked and shot the hostages dead, or they might have died
during the aerial bombings." "But the main point is not
who killed them but rather why the Turkish military carried out this
operation to bring the hostages back alive in a manner that led to their
deaths."
Human Rights Association’s president, Ozturk Turkdogan
"If we are together with you [the United States] in NATO,
if we are to continue our unity, then you will act sincerely toward us.
Then, you will stand with us, not with the terrorists."
"The US statement on the PKK’s execution of Turkish citizens in
northern Iraq is ridiculous. They claim they do not support the PKK, but
they certainly do."
If you want to continue our
alliance globally and within NATO, then you must stop siding with
terrorists."
"We kept trying to figure out how we can rescue our brothers from the
hands of the terrorists. We tried very hard, but we failed."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
"If the reports of the death of Turkish civilians at the hands of the
PKK, a designated terrorist organization, are confirmed, we condemn this
action in the strongest possible terms."
"The secretary expressed condolences for the deaths and affirmed our view that PKK terrorists bear responsibility."
United States State Department
The funeral of three Turkish military personnel killed in action at the
Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Mosque in Ankara on 12 February 2021 (AFP)
The
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a guerrilla militia which established
itself in the 1980s to represent the heritage rights of the tens of
millions of Kurds, the world's largest minority ethnic group without an
established homeland of their own. Their native territory was divided
between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey when two world powers, Britain and
France, occupied that vast area during World War I after the dissolution
of Ottoman Turkey the deposed hegemonic power.
Although Kurds were
promised in the boundaries of the Middle East territories their claim
would be honoured, it was not.
Ever
since, ethnic Kurds have dreamed bitterly of the betrayal and have
agitated for their own recognized sovereign homeland reflecting their
historical presence in the geography. Any attempt made to achieve
sovereignty earned them physical violence to tamp down their enthusiasm
for leaving their state of enforced occupation under which their
'separatist' notions were regarded as criminal, leaving them to live as a
people under merciless disciplinary duress.
Iraqi Kurds fear Turkey's drones in PKK mtn.war
A
state of being that brings to mind China's crushing of Tibet and
Xinjiang and its aspirations toward absorbing Taiwan and shutting down
democracy in Hong Kong. Recep Tayyip Erdogan rails against the very
concept of a Kurdish nation desirous of and deserving of recognition of
their authenticity as the original territorial indigenous peoples. He
sneers at the very concept of Jews returning to their ancestral
geography from a forced historical diaspora, championing Arab migrants
who began to populate Jewish Palestine in search of economic and settler
opportunities. The Turks themselves were migrants into the Mesopotamian
plain and the mountainous regions beyond, the historical Kurdish
homeland.
Kurds living in south-eastern Turkey have had their villages bombed on
the pretense that they harbour members of the PKK. The PKK expanded
their presence into Iraq as an operational base, with the Turkish
military following them, accusing another Iraqi Kurdish group, the YPG
of being their allies. Among the various Kurdish groups there are
manifestly different attitudes toward occupation with some choosing
diplomacy others violence to achieve eventual aims of freedom from
persecution and occupation.
The hunted PKK have taken Turkish members of the military captive from
time to time to use as leverage in prisoner exchanges. A group of such
Turkish hostages were being kept in Kurdistan, a mountainous area of
northern Iraq bordering Turkey, in a cave in the Gara region. There, the
Kurdistan YPG the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, are accused
by Erdogan of aiding and abetting the PKK, calling them both terrorist
groups. The Turkish military under Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, despite
knowing that Turkish hostages were being held there, bombed the area
repeatedly in a four-day operation.
And after heavily bombing the Gara area for days, the Turkish forces
entered the cave complex on day four to discover, they claim, the
corpses of thirteen Turks, most members of the Turkish military, several
Turkish diplomats and three of them civilians. The PKK had made a
public statement on February 11 that Turkish war planes were hitting the
camp directly where the hostages were being held. It was this known fact that the U.S. State Department referred to when
they originally voiced skepticism over Turkey's claim the PKK had shot
the hostages dead.
The large number of Kurds in Turkey have elected their own to
parliament, the largest Kurdish-sympathizing parliamentary group called
the HDP had called upon Ankara to negotiate with the PKK for release of
the hostages. They had themselves in the past acted in that same role to
negotiate for the release of prisoners. President Erdogan spits rage at
the very thought of negotiating with "terrorists" though it had
bargained with the Islamic State for release of 49 hostages when the
Turkish Consulate had been overrun. Turkey freed a number of IS
prisoners in exchange for Turkish hostages.
This time Turkey chose to arrest hundreds of people it has identified
as linked to the PKK, a revenge move against the killing of the 13
hostages, ostensibly. Likelier, the Turkish military bombing of the area
around the cave complex led to the deaths of the hostages, which Turkey
pretends to hold the PKK responsible for; the event giving Erdogan the
opportunity to arrest and imprison those he considers his enemies. Among
them hundreds of members of the HDP. Fully 718 people were detained in
40 cities across Turkey, accused of links to the PKK.
One HDP
member of Parliament stated that roughly 150 members of his party were
detained overnight. City and district heads belonging to the pro-Kurdish
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) (Democratic Party of the People}
supporting Turkey's minorities were also arrested. President Erdogan
uses arrest and incarceration as a control mechanism of those Turks who
oppose his Islamist agenda and his oppressive authority. Any he believes
support the Gulenist movement after an aborted coup in 2016 languish in
prison.
These included high-ranking members of the military,
journalists, teachers, lawyers in their thousands as well as police and
members of the judiciary. Erdogan had a bitter dispute with the United
States when he insisted that Fethullah Gulen -- a popular and respected
imam, once an ally, more latterly a political adversary with a huge
following in Turkey, living in self-exile in the United States but
remaining hugely influential in Turkey and whom Erdogan blames for the
attempted coup -- be extradited to Turkey to stand trial on charges of
treason, a 'terrorist' meriting the death penalty.
Ibrahim Kalin
@ikalin1
PKK executes 13 civilian captives in a cave in #Gara, Iraq. It attacks Turkish & Iraqi security forces & civilians. It continues its terrorist attacks in northern Syria.
The world is silent. This silence is a shameful act of complicity.
But we will not remain silent.
Chinese Hostage Diplomacy, Canada's Meek Capitulation
"In my view, if the alliance was strong, the next time China embarked on hostage diplomacy, they would understand they have to change the way they do business."
Guy Sainte-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to Beijing
"We will continue to challenge China when it comes to human rights being violated ... and cooperate on global challenges like climate change, because there is no easy path forward without China."
Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne
Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer
Meng Wanzhou is escorted by her security personnel as she leaves court
during a break for lunch on the first day of her extradition trial on
January 20, 2020 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty
Images
With the enforced detention on charges of espionage of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, an ex-diplomat and entrepreneur respectively running into two years' imprisonment as a ploy by Beijing to force Canada into releasing Huawei's CFO, held in Canada under an extradition warrant issued by the United States, China and Canada have been at a stand-off in relations with Beijing imposing restrictions on commodity imports from Canada, and Canada reciprocating by attempting subtle pacification.
At the same time, urging its fellow democracies to place diplomatic pressure on Beijing to release the two Canadians, and resisting Beijing's efforts to force the release of Meng Wanzhou who flits from one to the other of her two Vancouver luxury mansions which she is confined to, awaiting extradition proceedings. A multilateral effort has been launched by Canada to address China's 'hostage diplomacy' that has fated two other Canadians with death sentences, accused of drug smuggling.
A former Canadian ambassador to Beijing speaks of the arbitrary detention discussions as an opportunity for collegial countries to impose automatic sanctions that all signatory nations would apply when China or any other country advanced their cause whatever it might happen to be, through taking hostages, to be released once their goal has been achieved.
The U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia, France, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain have all spoken out publicly condemning the detention of Kovrig and Spavor, and it is likely they would form the backbone along with Canada of any new alliance on arbitrary detention. Certainly the Canadian public has a fresher view of their country's relations with the Asian giant.
Michael Kovrig (left) and Michael Spavor (right) are seen in this composite image. One of Canada's most controversial ex-ambassadors to China says he
repeatedly tried to improve the living conditions of Michael Kovrig and
Michael Spavor after their imprisonment in the People's Republic almost
two years ago.
A newly released poll by the Asia Pacific Foundation reveals that impressions by the Canadian public of China are at an all-time low since 2010 when the same questions were asked, eliciting the response currently that Beijing's economic sweep of the world represents a threat not an opportunity as was once viewed. There are rumours that Canada is considering a pivot away from China, where once it viewed a free trade deal with the trade colossus as an achievably rewarding goal.
Minister Champagne's opinion was stated at the opening of a proposed new committee, stating the obvious, that relations with China are "complex and multi-imensional" with China "increasingly prepared to throw its weight around", so that like-minded countries have a need to defend themselves and uphold a rules-based international order. At the same time Canada is cautious about the risk of further offending Beijing and the cost inherent in so doing.
Trade looms large in the positives seen in Canada-China relations, as does the financial reward accruing to Canada through continued Chinese tourism in Canada and Chinese students studying in Canadian universities, to the point of being willing to overlook China's subversive interference in Canadian society, politics and the educational system, much less the crisis that has developed with the two detained Canadians languishing in a Chinese prison.
"To those who are seduced by this one-dimensional view [of resorting to the same 'tough talk' with China as Beijing's ambassadors have been indulging in with respect to Canada], I say this: While it is easy to be tough, let's consider to be smart", said Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Champagne. While he thinks it is 'smart', critics of Canada's position vis-a-vis China's bullying would replace that with 'mealy-mouthed'.
But par for the course for a country that hasn't the courage of its presumed convictions.
Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne responds to a
question during Question Period in the House of Commons Monday November
23, 2020 in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Adrian Wyld)
"Duterte's [Philippine-president-elect Rodrigo Duterte] boastful brand of violent impunity should be a path to prosecution, not a platform for political office." Human Rights Watch "He might appear to be insensitive to women, but during his time as mayor [of Davao City, Philippines] he supported policies on behalf of women and programs for children." Luzviminda Hagan, congressional representative, Gabriela [women's rights group]
"His jokes are his connection to the common man. He knows what he is doing. He is a lawyer. He graduated from one of the top law schools. He passed the bar." "He is a very intelligent fellow." Benny Gopez, Filipino businessman
President-elect accuses bishops – who criticised him for calling the
pope ‘a son of a whore’ – of hypocrisy, saying they have asked him for
favours ... The tirade comes after Duterte cursed the pope in a speech in December
Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP
"It appears my government [Canada] has abandoned me and my family in this endeavour. We've [three remaining hostages of Abu Sayyaf] been here for eight months. I came to your beautiful country in good faith and in peace, and here I am [abducted, threatened with beheading]." "One of us has already been murdered [Canadian John Ridsdel]. We hope that you can work on our behalf as soon as possible to get us out of here. Please, the sooner the better. We're three-quarters dead right now." Robert Hall, former Calgarian, hostage of Abu Sayyaf
The pleas of Robert Hall, spurred on by his very real fear of death, threatened by the same fate that befell his fellow Canadian several weeks ago when the ransom demand of $8-million dollars each for the release of Marites Flor, abducted with Mr. Hall, Mr. Ridsdel, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad who had operated the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort off the southern coast of Mindanao will have fallen on deaf ears.
Canadian Robert Hall. Screenshot
The simple fact being that the controversial new president of the Philippines is adamant that he plans to carry on his country's refusal to pay ransom to the Islamist jihadis who favour kidnapping foreigners as a means of extracting whopping sums of money from foreign governments to fund their jihad. European governments with the exception of Britain do respond to ransom demands while others like the United States and purportedly Canada, do not.
In one of his statements respecting the abduction situation Mr. Duterte advised in no uncertain terms that anyone unfortunate enough to be abducted by the jihadis boasting of their association with the Islamic State, should say their prayers and appeal directly to god, because the government of the Philippines is not prepared to do business with criminal terrorists.
Some might venture to say that in his former persona as mayor of Davao City, the president-elect himself had a penchant toward thuggishness. He could claim in his mocking defence that his thuggishness was practised in defense of the rights of the citizens of the city, and that he fully intends to bring to the office of president of the Philippines the very same techniques that brought down the criminal element in Davao.
The 71-year-old Mr. Duterte certainly has had experience, as a crime fighter, a prosecutor and no-holds-barred mayor proud of having stomped on criminals, giving them measure-for-measure the same kind of treatment they meted out to citizens. There were reputed to have been over a thousand extrajudicial killings in Davao during the 20 years this man was mayor.
During the presidential campaign the crude-talking Rodrigo Duterte boasted that he himself killed criminals, claiming the justification was that they were resisting arrest. Should he be elected, he promised, he would pursue criminals and kill them himself and should there be any resulting controversy he would use the power vested in him as president to issue a presidential pardon on his own behalf.
Despite what might seem to an unaware observer hearing his boastful statements and crude references to rape as expressions of unsuitability for public office, people who know him speak of him as a shrewd politician and a technocrat observing the need to help the needy. The Public Safety and Security Command Center built under his watch in Davao boasts live feeds from closed-circuit cameras throughout the city.
Close by, a dedicated building has a fleet of new ambulances and fire-trucks dispatched through an emergency call center, complete with a specially equipped ambulance for children, and a larger vehicle used as a hospital-on-wheels. All civic, social services provided free of charge to patients, and these are services unavailable elsewhere in the Philippines, reflecting their past mayor's values and priorities.
Human Rights Watch is not impressed. Without denying his achievements on behalf of those he served, there is the dark side of his administration and his personal attachment to fighting corruption and crime with extrajudicial violence. The thousand vigilante killings sully his record on human rights entitlements. But even as HRW accuses him of those violations, there are others who laud his straightforward defence of the defenceless.
But for the defenceless who are in the unfortunate position of being held as pawns in the battle of Islamist jihadists against the government of the Philippines it is futile to the look to that government to come to their aid, to prevent them from becoming beheading statistics carried out by the vicious jihadis whose first order of business is raking in millions, and second order instilling terror.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
When the kibbutzim were raided by armed Hamas, PLFP and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists on that dreadful day of savage infamy on October 7, among the terrorists were ordinary Palestinian, teens and men, some of whom knew those kibbutz environs intimately. People who had drawn helpful maps for the terrorists showing them where the security buildings were so those tasked to protecting the kibbutz could be dispatched first to enable the raiders to get on with their business of slaughter and rape unimpeded.
![Turkey regularly attacks PKK fighters, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based [File: Presidential Press Service/AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/66f87fced9b1452e99c52fa5920205d7_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
