A sober reminder that the job isn’t yet done

I wish I could say that I’m surprised at the devastating news of the death of the remaining members of the Bibas family (Shiri and her young sons Kfir and Ariel) – but I’m not.

Instead, it just reminds me, yet again, of who, and what, Hamas is – and why the civilised world cannot rest, even for a moment, until this evil collective of inhuman scum is completely purged from the world.

Back in October I travelled to Israel to witness, first hand, some of the scenes of the October 2023 massacre. These included the site of the Nova Music Festival in Southern Israel, and the Kfar Aza Kibbutz nearby.

Both of these was incredibly moving, as were the first hand accounts of survivors of the events which took place at these locations – but the experience which changed me the most was the private viewing in which three media colleagues and I were shown of raw footage of the atrocities committed by Hamas, by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The footage was a collection of (mostly) video drawn from various sources. Some of it came from CCTV, and some from actual footage from the phone cameras of survivors and victims – but, for me, most of this footage paled against the recovered video taken from GoPro cameras strapped to the foreheads of the Hamas terrorists, themselves.

Let that sink in for a moment. These animals fitted themselves with GoPros so that they could record their own savagery!

And what they recorded would turn the strongest stomach. I can only describe the footage in very general terms because a post describing the graphic reality of what actually took place would be quickly removed – but imagine your worst nightmare and you won’t be far off. Barbaric scenes of hundreds of people (including children and babies) being tortured, burnt alive, raped and beheaded are repeated again and again as victim after victim was trapped with sickening disregard for any vestige of humanity.

And while all this was taking place the vile Hamas animals were also videoing each other, enraptured in a grotesque euphoria reminiscent of the way that fans might congratulate each other after a team scores a try at a football game. There was no sense of ‘resistance’ or somber solidarity – this was an exercise in ecstatic bloodlust, fueled by a steady diet of hate gleaned from perpetual victimhood and reinforced in the children’s textbooks of UNRWA schools.

So no – there was no surprise at the deaths of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz. Instead, these serve as a timely reminder that the task isn’t yet finished and is no less important, today, than it was in the weeks and months following October 2023.

There can be no compromise with Hamas. There can be no negotiating with Hamas. There can be no ‘new Gaza’ that includes Hamas.

The only acceptable outcome is one in which Hamas ceases to exist and in which the stain of its crimes is wiped from history.

Anything less is a betrayal of its victims.

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