Hamas document details tactics to up pressure on Israel, stall hostage talks — report
According to Bild, terror organization seeks to introduce Arab forces to Strip to serve as buffer with Israel as it rebuilds, disregards Palestinian civilians
A newly revealed Hamas document indicates that the terror group’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel is to rehabilitate its military capabilities and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population, German newspaper Bild reported Friday
The spring 2024 document, which Bild said it had obtained exclusively! without offering further details, was reportedly found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar -- How careless! of Sinwar
It articulates Hamas’s strategies and objectives in negotiations with Israel over a potential deal that would see hostages released in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel
According to the report, Hamas is indifferent to whether the ongoing war ends quickly, instead prioritizing maintaining the terror group’s military capabilities “exhausting” Israel’s military and political apparatuses and increasing international pressure on Israel
While the terror group admits in the paper that the war, going into its 12th month, has diminished its military capacities, Hamas still seeks to “improve important clauses in the agreement, even if the negotiations continue for an extended period”
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Notably, Palestinian civilian casualties are not mentioned in the document
Hamas' psychological warfare
The report also said Hamas lays out a strategy of psychological warfare through the hostages, calling to “continue to exert psychological pressure on the families of the [hostages] both now and in the first phase [of the ceasefire] so that public pressure on the enemy government increases”
This strategy has been demonstrated through Hamas’s periodic publishing of videos of hostages pleading for their release
In the past week, Hamas has published such videos featuring hostages whose bodies were recently recovered from Gaza, days after they were executed by the terror group
