You might think it is “empty”, but diplomacy is conducted via gestures like this.
Israel is rightfully becoming a pariah state. You should probably get used to headlines like this.
Given the Israeli governments ongoing efforts to make them disappear from the face of the earth, other countries recognising that they exist is helpful.
As it happens, they are also committing a genocide. I suspect you won’t accept that, but I don’t care. History will look back on this and agree with me, not you.
Why does the UN say they are? Do you think destroying the entire people in one day would be as easy to pass politically as what they gave done?
Was September 11 also a “genocide”?
The situation Israel is in now is very different due to their economic and military reliance on other countries.
Also I don’t think ordinary Gazans can somehow return the hostages..
The people in the suicidal death cult called Hamas might be able to (probably not at this point though) but they don’t seem to care much more about civilian deaths than than the Israelis..
>> Interesting to note is how the "victims" of this genocide can end it immediately by simply returning the hostages but refuse to.
How it 'can end' doesn't determine whether or not it is genocide.
I find it amazing that you can dismiss one of the primary reasons for the continued state of war as irrelevant.
Hamas will rightly hold this up as a major tactical and strategic victory. It will do nothing at all to help palestinians except the fat cats in the plo and qatar.
And despite your history you don't seem very knowledgeable of what a genocide is, or willing to listen who actually studied the matter.
Hamas is not the victim of the genocide, but I guess you don't think there's any victim here, given the quotes.
The Israeli government said countless times that having all the hostages back wouldn't end the military operation.
And frankly, if all this abomination would actually succeed in forcing the hands of hamas, it would set a terrible precedent.
Others would have an argument to repeat it everytime someone holds hostage something.
Interesting to note, instead, how the Israeli government could have freed all the hostages for years, had it accepted any of the many offers of hamas.
https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-leader-in-gaza-yahya-sinwa...
"We are ready to immediately conclude a prisoner exchange deal that involves releasing all our prisoners held in your prisons in exchange for freeing all captives held by the resistance"
also, those offers ain't mutually exclusive.
For sure it's preferable to exterminate a few thousand more Palestinian children.
The second "offer" came after the first one was brushed off.
second offer is literally their charter.
It’s a false analogy, the conventional war is long over and hamas has no real military capacity to do much anymore.
The equivalent would be the allies refusing to occupy Berlin and still bombing it well into 1946 despite the war being won.
Allies also had a rather clear plan on what goals they want to achieve and why. Israeli government seems to have no idea what do they want to achieve and how (besides extending Netanyahu’s political career..)
Just in the past 24 hours, there were rockets launched from Gaza toward Ashdod - https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-rockets-fired-at-ashdod-id...
> hamas has no real military capacity to do much anymore
They're still in control of a significant minority of Gaza territory. "Destroy military assets and get out" can sometimes be a useful strategy, but it's a pretty short term solution.
> what goals they want to achieve and why
The goal seems to be occupation of the entire strip, to make it difficult for Hamas (and PIJ etc) to operate effectively.
Huh? You'll have to explain that one.
If so its only because Israel decided to allow them to maintain that control.
> but it's a pretty short term solution.
Exactly, that seems to be Israel’s strategy. If they actually destroyed Hamas the rightwing government in Israel would lose the bogeyman keeping them in power (that’s why they were propping up Hamas for years).
Destroying their capacity to wage war didn’t require blowing up every building in Gaza.
This is also not a gentleman's war. A neighboring government supported by their citizens who joined in spontaneously, launched a surprise attack that killed 1000+, and indiscriminately maimed/raped/tortured thousands more, while broadcasting video of themselves kidnapping random 6 year old girls to the world, neighboring citizens who phoned home to their parents to brag 'I killed 10 jews today'.
War sucks. War is horrific. Which is why it sucks Hamas, the government of Gaza, chose this war. Why it sucks Hamas structured things for the war to proceed, with maximal civilian damage and casualties. Why it sucks Hamas chose to use civilian hostages abducted during the murder/rape/maiming of thousands. No country can just let their citizens be abducted and held captive like Hamas choses to do, intentionally ratcheting up the pressure/tempo of the war that they initiated.
They had rather specific goals and were willing to directly occupy Germany at great risk and cost instead of continuing to bomb its civilians for an indeterminate amount of time while they starved to death..
That’s perhaps a bit different?
Official rations in Germany varied from 800–1550 calories per day. 800 airdropped, 1550 the amount post occupation. Are you arguing Israel should fully occupy and partition Gaza, like the allies did in Germany, and cut from the 3004 current calorie target to the 1550 one used by the USA in occupied Germany?
What is different here? Germans in occupied Germany received LESS food than Gazan do today. Are you saying you want less food to go into Gaza because Gaza is getting twice the calorie targets of what the USA targeted for occupied Germany? Germany was fire bombed (much much worse than the bombing in Gaza) and given 1/3 to 1/2 as much food going on years after the conflict ended. I'm really confused what you are pushing for? I thought people wanted more food into Gaza, not severely less like how the USA treated occupied Germany.
It sounds like you are saying Israel would be more just if they firebombed Gaza then partitioned it into smaller pieces isolating residents to those areas, and cut food in half from what Gaza is getting fed today? And that's ignoring the mass mass rapes that occured in Germany. What you are arguing for would be very, very bad.
https://ijhpr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13584-025-...
https://hhr-atlas.ieg-mainz.de/articles/oconnell-washington-...
What do you think I’m arguing for?
Besides saying that Israel should finally decide what do they want to do instead of prolonging the current situation?
If they want to resettle or otherwise “remove” the population they should get on with it.
Otherwise they should trying to figure out a more sustainable solution.
Except Netanyahu’s political career seems to be taking precedent over everything else..
While WW2 ended in May 1945, relief organizations were not allowed into occupied Germany with supplies for starving children until mid 1946
Which months did Gaza not receive any aid? I see statements like this from the UN:
"Within the enclave, the World Food Programme (WFP) has food stocks sufficient to support active kitchens and bakeries for up to one month, as well as ready-to-eat food parcels to support 550,000 people for two weeks, Mr. Dujarric said."
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161146
implying their is future risk, not that there were months with zero aid given out. There were months Germany did not receive new aid shipments as well, but existing aid was still given out. It looks like July of this year aid was down due to Hamas, not Israel. Again remember we are talking post war Germany versus active conflict Gaza where Hamas USES these sorts of things as weapons.
Looking around the GHF food boxes contain 42500 calories for 5.5 people for 3.5 days, making it 2207 calories a day. Still significantly higher than what the US occupation fed to Germans, the comparison that was brought up as 'better'.
So again, they are better off than occupied Germany was in the 1000-1500 calorie occupation/immediate post war 1945–46 years.
I'm not saying it's good, I'm saying war completely sucks, but that Israel is doing more than the USA did for Germany at the end of and immediately following WW2, the example that was presented to me as being better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_in_occupied_Germany
"The German infant mortality rate was twice that of other nations in Western Europe until the close of 1948."
"In early 1946, U.S. President Harry S. Truman allowed foreign relief organizations to enter Germany in order to review the food situation. In mid-1946, non-German relief organizations were permitted to help starving German children.[19] The German food situation became worst during the very cold winter of 1946–47, when German food energy intake ranged from 4,200 to 6,300 kJ (1,000 to 1,500 kcal) per day, a situation made worse by severe lack of fuel for heating."
"Herbert Hoover reported that in the fall of 1946, starvation produced a 40 percent increase in mortality among Germans over 70"
"Also, once it became clear there would be no rising, as threatened by the Nazis during the war, food controls were relaxed." - showing access to food was political on the US side.
"U.S. occupation forces were under strict orders not to share their food with the German population; these orders also applied to their wives when they arrived later in the occupation. The women were under orders not to allow their German maids to get hold of any leftovers; "the food was to be destroyed or made inedible"
"Your soldiers are good-natured, good ambassadors; but they create unnecessary ill will to pour 20 liters [5 U.S. gallons] of leftover cocoa in the gutter when it is badly needed in our clinics. It makes it hard for me to defend American democracy among my countrymen."
I think we've exhausted this discussion. Objectively occupied Germany had much much lower daily calories than ongoing combat Gaza. The US waited a year before aid agencies could help starving children. The US troops destroyed food IN FRONT OF starving Germans as part of policy for a year.
Zero (0) food entered Gaza from March 2, 2025 to May 19, 2025.
Two and a half months.
Barbaric.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-halts-aid-into-gaza-ove... https://aijac.org.au/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-aid-into-gaza/#f... https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/media/sftjdsg2/cogat-humanitari...
I would argue waiting a year before the USA allowed aid agencies to feed starving children after the war still puts the US occupation in Germany in a worse situation, the fact infant mortality was double in Germany for 3 years after the war, the fact that target calories were 1/3-1/2 for Germans than for the people in Gaza today.
Germans were at much greater risk as the 1000-1500 calories level doesn't leave as much room for issues as Gaza's 3000 calorie one. In addition Germany had really harsh winters during this period which would need more calories than Gaza.
I think we've explored this topic to it's end. I think objectively the occupation of Germany post war by the US was worse than what Israel has done during an ongoing war to feed Gaza. It's horrific that the government of Gaza chose to start this war and chose to head down the path to all the suffering that war can create.
* UNRWA ran out of flour April 24. https://abcnews.go.com/International/malnutrition-gaza-worse...
* World Food Program ran out of all food April 25. https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-runs-out-food-stocks-gaza-borde...
* World Central Kitchen ran out of all food May 7. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/world-central-kitc...
These were major food providers in Gaza. If they had run out of food, I can't imagine that "food was handed out continuously." You are welcome to prove me wrong and find a major provider still providing food in ample quantities in early May.
I don't understand your point with the comparison with Germany. What the US did was barbaric and cruel. Maybe what Israel is doing to Gaza is the 8th circle of hell instead of the 9th, but who cares?
Hamas is a terrorist organization. They can stage terror attacks their conventional military capacity is insignificant. Much like US vs the Taliban.
Also it’s not like there isn’t anyone willing to supply enough food and other resources needed by the Gazan population (unlike in postwar Germany, the situation in France, Benelux etc. wasn’t that great in 1945 either.) it’s just that Israel is heavily limiting that.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. They can stage terror attacks their conventional military capacity is insignificant. Much like US vs the Taliban. Also it’s not like there isn’t anyone willing to supply enough food and other resources needed by the Gazan population (unlike in postwar Germany) it’s just that Israel is heavily limiting that.
also, and primarily, if you have any awareness of Japanese history whatsoever, you should be able to know that the nuking of Japan was the special case of all special cases. personally I think they should have just nuked somewhere in rural Japan first to make their point, and then gone for a population centre if that had failed to work, but that's beside the point, which is that Japan did not believe it could be beaten. any time they had been threatened historically, they had triumphed dramatically, often with the weather or random luck seemingly on their side. this sounds silly, but it's true. they needed to be shocked out of their arrogance. the same is not true of Hamas.
also your "war should be fought with maximum force" and--by implication--brutality is just complete bullshit and you've not actually made any effort to justify it other tham just saying that it's true
It seems pretty fair to say that Israel--including, to be clear, a large chunk of its population--wants to annihilate them, but is trying to do it slowly enough so that it can maintain some plausible deniability. The only concrete indication to the contrary is the plan to send the population of Gaza to the Sudan or wherever.
> what message does this send to Hamas?
who cares? Israel has had a genocidal government for some time now that has, until very recently, only received positive reinforcement.
Genocidal Israel has no issue being recognized in the West.