IDF spokesperson: Hamas hostage release is ‘psychological warfare’

International News | The Hill

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday that the two recent releases of hostages by the militant group Hamas is “psychological warfare” reminiscent of the tactics used by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

“Hamas is engaging in psychological warfare, they’re releasing two hostages and then another two hostages,” IDF spokesperson Doron Spielman said in an interview on Fox News’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” “They’re putting out videos that are reminiscent of Goebbels and the Nazis where they’re handing out cookies… to the hostages, which of course, we remember the videos that they…tuned up weeks ago when they were maiming and raping, living and dead women along with all this other destruction.”

“It’s simply more of their propaganda from our perspective, as we’ve said, the hostages — we’re doing everything we can to bring them home,” Speilman added.

Spielman’s comments come shortly after Hamas’s release of two elderly women on Monday, who were being held captive in the Gaza Strip.

Their release was part of international negotiations to release the more than 200 people kidnapped since the group’s bloody massacre against Israel three weeks ago that killed over 1,400 people, including hundreds of civilians at their homes, at a bus stop and a music festival.

Ahead of their release on Monday, Israeli officials said Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and several other countries, was holding 222 hostages.

The Biden administration has said that at least 10 American citizens are unaccounted for and has not confirmed that they are all being held by Hamas. President Biden has reiterated that efforts to secure hostages are ongoing.

The group also released two hostages last Friday, a dual American-Israeli mother and her 18-year-old daughter, Judith and Natalie Raanan.

Spielman pointed to the importance of defeating Hamas to ensure hostages are not taken in the future.

“But defeating Hamas is the absolute priority. That’s been said from the very beginning because there’s a recognition that without defeating Hamas, there could be more hostages in the future, more destruction in the future,” he said.

Hostage negations have spanned several days as the fighting rages on between Hamas and Israel, which responded to the militant group’s surprise attacks on Oct. 7 with a bombardment of Gaza.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes into Hamas-ruled Gaza and cut off the territory’s supply of water, food, medicine and fuel. Over 5,700 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the conflict, including over 2,300 children, 1,200 women and 295 elderly people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Over 16,200 are wounded, with that number expected to rise, Gaza officials said Tuesday.

An impending ground invasion by Israeli forces has loomed over Gaza for more than a week after over 1 million Palestinians were ordered to flee their neighborhoods in the north and head south.

The United States has largely supported Israel’s pledge to eliminate Hamas in response to the attacks, drawing a parallel to America’s war on terror after the 9/11 attacks.

In his visit to Tel Aviv last week, Biden announced a U.S.-brokered deal to allow for a small shipment of aid to enter Gaza and bring relief to the deepening humanitarian crisis. Two aid convoys carrying food, water, and medical supplies were permitted to enter Gaza over the weekend using the Rafah crossing with Egypt, though humanitarian leaders have stressed more aid is needed.