Izzat al-Rishq’s remarks came shortly after the Israeli army announced that it had discovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, asserting that they had been killed by Hamas.
“The ones who kill our people daily are the Israeli colonizers with American weapons. The hostages found in Gaza were not killed by us but by the relentless Zionist bombardment,” Rishq said in a statement.
He further criticized the U.S., saying, “If President [Joe] Biden truly cares about the lives of Israeli hostages, he should cease his support for this enemy with money and weapons and pressure Israel to end its aggression immediately.”
This is not about the question of genocide though. I think we mainly agree on that happening and rightfully demand it to stop.
This is about the hostages and the cause of their death. And frankly we don’t know. Because both sources on that are incredibly biased and obviously pursue their own agendas.
And rightfully one should avoid just blindly believing either of them like the original comment here does just because it “makes sense” to them. That literally translates to: “I have confirmation bias so I believe this”
Israel has the ability to show the bodies. They posses the evidence. They could submit it to independent investigation by the UN. They could let journalists in to independently verify it.
Hamas accepts to all of these things. They have agreed to let journalists into Gaza to do independent reporting. Those journalists are blocked by israel.
There is one instance in which journalists aren’t blocked to verify israeli claims. When there is real evidence. Suddenly we have thisisKhamaaas dot org with all the footage aired.
When only one sole party is blocking access to the truth unless it is convenient to them, it makes them the less trustworthy one.
I still wouldn’t believe Hamas on their word as they have been caught lying a few times too. But in general their statements have been more reliable. Especially since they admitted it when one of their guards killed a captive out of revenge.