Give thanks for freed hostages — and Hamas’ coming, necessary elimination

Relatives and friends of 84-year-old Israeli hostage Ditza Heiman at a protest in Tel Aviv demanding that Hamas release all hostages on Nov. 22, 2023. Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Let us all give thanks that dozens of the hostages Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7 will return to their families in the coming days if the terrorists honor the promises they made to gain a temporary cease-fire.

Accepting that deal was the choice of Israel’s government, which rightly vows it will continue its campaign to eradicate Hamas when fighting resumes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his war cabinet and all of Israel know the risks involved.

Hamas’ goons will use the break to regroup (and resupply, courtesy of the “humanitarian aid” the deal allows), while its leaders and their allies (and all too many “useful idiots” across the globe, including much of the US State Department) press to make the cease-fire “permanent.”

Meaning, until Hamas chooses to break it with a new attack, just as it broke the last cease-fire with its Oct. 7 atrocities, which included the taking of the hostages it’s now giving up.

And as it broke past cease-fires with other attacks on Israeli civilians.

At the least, Hamas can extend this cease-fire for days or weeks more, since Israel has agreed to add a day for each 10 additional hostages released.

Presumably, Netanyahu & Co. feel Israel’s forces are in a good place for a pause: They’ve isolated the northern third of Gaza, surrounded Gaza City and cleared many Hamas bases — including beneath and in the al-Shifa Hospital.

And they’ve killed or captured a host of Hamas fighters and commanders, while helping hundreds of thousands of Gaza civilians to evacuate south.

Indeed, the pause may give more innocents a chance to flee — assuming Hamas admits that the cease-fire means it can’t keep firing on them, as it’s been doing to enforce its “Stay here and serve as human shields for us” orders.

What’s vital here, though, is that the cease-fire must end, as Netanyahu pledges, with Israel resuming operations to eliminate Hamas in all of Gaza.

The only good time to negotiate with terrorists is when you mean to eradicate them once the deal is done.

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Otherwise, they’ll take new hostages, commit new atrocities — even, in this case, resume their occupation of Gaza.

Israel must finish the job, and the United States should support it every inch of the way.

Hamas started this battle with massive war crimes, and commits new war crimes every day it fights.

In the end, Israel can accept nothing less than Hamas’ unconditional surrender or utter defeat — and anyone hoping to save Gazan lives should call for Hamas to give up, not for Israel to stop.

Should President Biden join the inevitable global outcry to make this cease-fire “permanent,” he’ll be siding with the terrorists.