Hamas Intensifies Crisis Over the Hostages in Gaza

The announcement by Hamas of “new instructions” for militants guarding Israeli hostages, to kill them if Israeli forces draw near, represents a deeply worrying escalation in an already disastrous conflict. It comes at a time when public outrage in Israel is already growing over the failure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the return of hostages-a portent of how far the grim reality of the war’s next phase has grown in such a short period.

To drive its point home, Hamas issued a horrific cartoonlike picture of a kneeling figure with a gun to its head. That was seconded by a grim video of Eden Yerushalmi, 24, a bartender who was taken hostage during the Nova music festival. Yerushalmi was one of six hostages reportedly shot at close range in Hamas captivity last week, just before Israeli forces could reach them.

These acts point to a passage into even more brutal tactics, taking hostages as a means to further terrorize and press Israel. The grim fact is that the conflict is entering a phase where the fate of hostages is becoming a central and horrifying element in the ongoing war.