In the Media

Times of Israel – 7 November 2025

There’s a reason Israel and its supporters call Hamas a death cult: its flagrant disregard for human life has been on vivid display for decades – and never more so than since October 7, 2023.

This depravity has been demonstrated time and time again. On October 28^th, in a sickening example of the deception and psychological warfare it wages on the public, Hamas attempted to deceive Israel and the world in a grotesquely staged show involving the remains of a murdered hostage.

An IDF drone recorded the scene as it unfolded, showing Hamas terrorists clearly digging a pit, then dragging a white body bag into the pit and then covering it up with dirt. Once the Red Cross arrived, the terrorists “miraculously discovered” the body they had just buried.

Hamas pretended it was one of the 13 bodies at that time of hostages it still held in Gaza and was supposed to have returned within 72 hours – that is, more than three weeks ago now – as per the Trump peace plan Hamas agreed to. But this was a lie.

Instead, the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, who was wounded and kidnapped at the Nova music festival and died in captivity. Most of his body had been retrieved in December 2023 during an IDF operation. The return of these additional partial remains meant his family was now forced to reopen his grave for a third time.

Hamas’ actions were so repulsive they even prompted a rare rebuke from the Red Cross, which called them “unacceptable”. Frustratingly, the Red Cross had previously rarely criticized Hamas over its gross mistreatment of the hostages – calling into question its claim to global moral leadership on these issues.

Hamas’ behaviour can be so cruel, that for Westerners it is like a completely foreign language – something we simply cannot comprehend; the total opposite of everything we hold sacred: kindness, mutual respect, and compassion.

But far from being an isolated incident, this latest incident is part of Hamas’ barbaric modus operandi. It tortures the families of its victims in a sadistic, sickening game to try to manipulate public opinion in Israel to force the government to make concessions to Hamas.

Just a few weeks ago it returned the body of what it said was an Israeli hostage but was in actual fact a Gazan dressed up in an IDF uniform. This was repeated when Hamas returned the remains of what it also said was three hostages, but was Gazans instead. And who can forget the grotesque “release show” when the coffins of the murdered Bibas family – Shiri and her two small sons, Ariel and Kfir – were paraded with music and festivities. To deepen the torment, Hamas first sent back the wrong body before finally returning Shiri’s. No one can forget the heartbreaking video from October 7, 2023, showing the fear on Shiri Bibas’ face as she tried desperately to protect her children as Hamas thugs dragged her into Gaza. Nor can we forget how she, her children, and other hostages were kidnapped alive and then cold-bloodedly murdered in captivity.

The stories of the surviving hostages who have returned are equally horrific. Testimonies include not only systematic beatings, torture and starvation but other sick games. For instance, Daniella Gilboa was forced to climb into a body bag and fake her own death. Evyatar David was forced to dig what was said to be his own grave.

And now, amid the current ceasefire, Hamas has continued to attack Israeli forces across the withdrawal lines in skirmishes and infiltrations. Three soldiers have already been killed.

But even beyond attacks on Israelis, Hamas has also resumed torturing its own civilians with public beatings and executions in the streets. And Hamas has often also misused the bodies of dead Gazans as well, not just Jews.

Meanwhile, the “human rights” activists who chanted so enthusiastically against Israel seem mysteriously silent.

It’s almost as if they don’t care if Palestinians are being murdered, just as long as it’s not the Jews killing them…

The very first point of the Trump peace plan that Hamas signed onto calls for Gaza to become a deradicalized, terror-free zone that no longer poses a threat to its neighbours. So if it’s not obvious by now, a terror group like Hamas absolutely cannot play any role in the future governance of Gaza. If it is not disarmed, as the Trump plan calls for, the future of Gaza will be the same as the past: one filled with misery, death and destruction.

Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).