The hostages were/are extremely important though some PDF members were proposing to kill them all at once. I tend to put more weight in the opinions of average users of blogs, videos, and websites than in a few dozen journalists and over time such views bring to light a more 'real' picture. This Israeli blogger, while blaming the Palestinians, is actually portraying what the majority of Israelis think about the ceasefire and the near future. Israelis cannot be trusted. But, on the other hand, Israelis cannot trust the Gazans to not regroup and do another October 7 if given the chance, however long it would take.
If Hamas does not honor the ceasefire, as is certain to be the case as it takes over Gaza again completely, Israel should just dump the deal, and as has been suggested elsewhere beef up control of the Philadelphi Corridor, close off the northernmost 5 km of Gaza and appropriate it completely and permanently to Israel, and then proposition Hamas as follows: release all hostages within two weeks or yet more land will be lost: for each hostage not returned, the border moves southward 200 meters, for each dead hostage returned, 180, for each tortured, raped or otherwise badly harmed hostage returned 150, while no land will be lost for each hostage returned in good condition. In this deal, Hamas will lose the only thing it cares about, land. It will have definitively lost the war, and will be discredited around the world amongst jihadi groups, whichever way it chooses to go. Israel has leverage: it should use it.
In the future, Israel should apply the Eichmann death panalty to genocidal murderers amongst the Palestinians: that applies to those murdering on behalf of Hamas, PIJ, PFLP, and the PLO/Fatah -- each group has made their approval of genocide crystal clear, and their terrorist murderers act on this. This will help prevent those convicted murderers getting any release in future hostage deals and committing more of the same crimes.
