JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Hamas releases a psychological warfare image of 46 hostages plus Ron Arad, an Israel Air Force navigator missing since he was shot down in Lebanon in 1986. Under each hostage Hamas wrote a caption Ron Arad to suggest that they would all share the airman’s fate.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The image included the caption “Because of Netanyahu’s intransigence and Zamir’s submission; a farewell photo at the start of the operation in Gaza.”
Arad was captured by the Shiite group Amal in October 1986 after he was forced to eject from his fighter jet on a bombing mission over Lebanon. The pilot, Yishai Aviram, also ejected from the plane and managed to escape.
He was listed as missing in action for 31 years until until two intelligence reports by IDF intelligence and the Mossad concluded that he had died in 1988.
The latest artifact of psychological warfare from the jihadist group comes hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said that “very close” to 40 of the 48 remaining hostages in Gaza were likely dead adding, however, that Israel’s operation to seize control of Gaza City might free them.
An Israeli official familiar with the matter clarified that Israel’s assessment hasn’t changed: 48 hostages are being held by Hamas in Gaza. Of them, 26 classified as fallen, 2 with serious fear for their lives, and 20 believed to still be alive.
Last week, Trump made a different assessment, stating that “A small final group [of hostages] remains, and Hamas knows that if they release them, it’s probably the end of their lives. So it’s not easy to get them. I know that if you’re a parent, you don’t care, you just want your child back. I understand, but I got them out and did a good job, and we will do everything we can to get all the hostages. There are 20 alive, probably fewer now because some are already gone.”
Trump also warned Hamas regarding reports that hostages were being moved above ground in Gaza to serve as human shields. On his social media platform Truth Social, he wrote: “I read reports that Hamas is moving hostages above ground and using them as human shields. I hope Hamas leaders understand what they are getting into if they do this. This is a human horror. Don’t let it happen, otherwise ‘everything is open.’ Release all the hostages now.”
We believe, at least we try to believe, that Hkb’h keeps on constantly creating two kinds of people, Chosen and Un-Chosen. But we have to beg that we should not be chosen to appear in such horrible pictures or victims to Nazi-Like regimes.