In the first two days of this ceasefire agreement, Hamas has freed a total of 26 Israeli hostages. A total of 50 are to be released over the totality of this four day cease fire. The hostage exchange and four day pause in bombing, which began on Friday [00:00:18] of last week, was supposed to end today, but luckily there has been another two day extension in this pause of fighting, of war, of bombings. Now, as part of this deal, Hamas had agreed to free 50 women and children. [00:00:35] And of course, these are the hostages that Hamas viciously took captive and kidnaped on October 7th. Israel, in exchange, agreed to deliver increased aid to the Gaza Strip. They've been sending about 200 trucks of aid. [00:00:52] I thought the original agreement was 300 of these trucks on usual days prior to the war. 500 trucks carrying aid for Palestinians would enter the Gaza Strip. So you can see obviously they're not getting enough humanitarian aid, even given this agreement having to do with the hostage exchange. [00:01:10] But nonetheless, here is some more information about how this exchange is taking place, including some details about the 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons who are going to be let go as a result. [00:01:26] Let's watch. A white House official confirms that this agreement has been reached to extend the truce between Israel and Hamas by at least these two days. This is something that the Biden administration had been working on actively with the president making calls all weekend long. [00:01:43] We know he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, and they specifically discussed this possibility with the US pushing for this extension with the hopes of getting more hostages released. Of course, that first American, the dual Israeli American citizen released [00:02:01] yesterday, that four year old girl, Abigail Adan, who turned four in captivity on Friday after her parents were murdered by Hamas since she was taken hostage for 50 days before being released yesterday back [00:02:17] to some of her family members in Israel. That is the first American to be released and returned. I just want to note that that four year old girl who, thank God, has been released by Hamas, is now an orphan because Hamas slaughtered her mom and dad. [00:02:34] So it's really important for people to not buy into propaganda on either side, because I've noticed that, you know, you'll see some videos that argue that Hamas treated these hostages really well, gave them the medical attention [00:02:51] that they needed. Guys, please don't buy into that, okay? Remember, they have an interest in keeping the hostages alive because the hostages are the only leverage Hamas has in these negotiations with Israel. So don't act like they're doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. [00:03:09] Or Hamas is some humanitarian organization. These are terrorists who went out of their way to kidnap innocent civilians and take them across the border to Gaza, where they've been dealing with Israel's aerial bombardments and have been living in tunnels in the dark. [00:03:25] So let's just be clear about that. Now. With that said, as of this morning, the Financial Times reported that since the hostage agreement went into effect on Friday, Hamas has released 39 women and children and 18 foreigners. Israel has freed 117 Palestinian women and children from its prisons. [00:03:42] Now, that was reporting from early this morning. Since then, we've seen reporting indicating that Hamas has released another 11 hostages today. And Israel had agreed to extending the, you know, temporary pause in bombing for [00:04:00] every ten hostages that Hamas releases. So I'm guessing the 11 hostages that Hamas released today is the reason why Israel agreed to extending this pause in bombing. It was supposed to end earlier today, and they didn't end it. [00:04:16] They decided to extend it. As I mentioned earlier. Now, understandably, family and friends want to celebrate when hostages or prisoners are released. But CNN did a fascinating report which, again, these reports tend to surprise me from legacy media outlets, which have a history of siding with Israelis and [00:04:35] providing cover for anything Israel does. But they wanted to draw attention to how Palestinians have been treated as their loved ones have been released from Israeli prisons. So let's take a look at that reporting, and I'll talk a little more [00:04:50] about what's going on. Here in East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities were better able to enforce the diktat of their far right. National security minister who has who has deemed the prisoners released today as terrorists. [00:05:05] But not just that, he said. Any Palestinian who celebrates will themselves be charged as terrorists. I mean, just to break, break, break that down a little bit. There is no grounds to call them terrorists because by Israel's own reckoning, those 39 prisoners were 15 miners, ten of whom were only charged, [00:05:27] and 24 women, 23 were sorry, were detained, not charged, and ten of the minors were detained, not charged. It complicates telling this story. So imagine your daughter has come home to you and you have to hide indoors to express your joy. [00:05:44] So I thought that was an important report by CNN. And please check out more of the work that that particular reporter has been doing in regard to the so-called Palestinian prisoners, because a lot of them seem to have been imprisoned on no charges, no due process. [00:06:05] I want to be clear. There was a list showing the prisoners that would be released by Israel. A few of them had been charged with attempted murder, but most of them have not been charged. As the reporter mentioned in that video that you just saw, 15 of the minors had [00:06:21] been detained with absolutely no charges. And this really highlights a practice in Israel known as administrative detentions. What are they? Well, they should remind you a little of the indefinite detentions that the United States is guilty of committing in Guantanamo, for instance, [00:06:39] where you have individuals that don't get any due process, have not been charged with anything, have not been found guilty or convicted of anything, but they're just indefinitely detained in Gitmo. Right now, it appears that Israel has a similar practice. [00:06:55] And as we condemned what was going on in Guantanamo Bay, we should condemn what Israel is doing with these administrative detentions. Now, what are they? Let me fill in the blanks. It's the indefinite detention of Palestinians by Israel. Many of the prisoners are held indefinitely without being charged [00:07:11] or convicted of anything. So they can do this for six months. But once the six months are up, they can renew the indefinite detention. Many of the released prisoners were in fact teens accused of throwing rocks, and in fact, there have been instances of teenagers throwing rocks, [00:07:30] getting charged and then sentenced, convicted and sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison for doing so. Think about that for throwing rocks. Now, I want to give you more details on who some of these prisoners are. [00:07:46] So on October 12th, for instance, in the West Bank village of Wadi al-Sheikh, Israeli soldiers and settlers detained three Palestinians and spent hours abusing them. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israelis stripped the detainees [00:08:03] down to their underwear, blindfolded and photographed them, beat them with knives and an iron pipe, put out cigarets on their bodies, and even urinated on them. Boy sure sounds a lot like what our soldiers did at Abu Ghraib. [00:08:20] Okay, so, I mean, that was such a shameful moment for the United States, for its military, something that we condemned. And I just want to be clear, if we are willing to condemn the war crimes committed by our own military, by our own government, [00:08:36] I don't think that we should judge Israel and Israel's government, which likes to tout its democracy by a lower standard. Let me continue. A tool of repression. Vox reports that Israel has long deployed against Palestinians and has used [00:08:52] even more aggressively in recent weeks. Is administrative detention a practice that allows Israel to jail Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial, meaning without due process. And by the way, when the trial happens, it's not done in regular courts [00:09:07] or a regular court system, as is the case with Israeli citizens. They get charged in or they undergo trial in military courts. Now, human rights groups have in fact deemed Israel's use of administrative detention as a blatant violation of international law, [00:09:27] even beyond administrative detention. When charges are brought against Palestinians in the West Bank, there are most almost always tried in military courts that have a near-perfect conviction rate. By contrast, Israelis are usually tried in civil court. [00:09:42] Palestinians, in other words, are sent to a trap door instead of a fair trial. And guess what? Even reporters are targeted by this. Over the years, Israel has detained hundreds of people, including dozens of journalists, for security concerns that amounted [00:10:00] to nothing more than social media posts. And since October 7th, Israeli forces have been aggressively policing the what Palestinians are saying online. So merely including a Palestinian flag on a social media post or quotes [00:10:16] from the Quran are being targeted by Israel as sources of incitement. So with all of that in mind, it's really important to understand how skewed the framing is when it comes to this exchange. Because, you know, the Israeli government has really painted [00:10:34] these Palestinians as terrorists. And if you celebrate their release, well, we're going to consider you terrorists for celebrating the return of your loved ones, the release of your loved ones from these administrative detentions. [00:10:50] And I think the fact that they're willing to call their family members celebrating, their family members return, calling them terrorists, is just another indication of how easy it is for a Palestinian to be considered a bad actor, a criminal, a [00:11:08] terrorist, an imminent threat to Israelis. Right? It doesn't take much. Now there's nothing stopping Israel from carrying out this injustice. In fact, while Israel has released 117 of these prisoners so far as part [00:11:24] of the hostage swap, they've also at the same time detained another 116 prisoners across the occupied West Bank. And so this was an argument that Jake was making on the show. As we were talking about the negotiations for the release of hostages. [00:11:41] Jake argued, look, the Israelis are actually getting a really good deal because there's really nothing stopping Israel from rounding up more Palestinians and detaining them through these administrative detentions. And it appears that is exactly what's happening here. Now, finally, I want to pivot to the extension of the pause [00:12:00] prior to the additional two day extension. Hamas had wanted to extend the pause, and President Joe Biden, to his credit, seemed to want the pause to be extended as well. I mean, he's not calling for a cease fire. God forbid he do that. But he was negotiating behind the scenes to extend the pause. [00:12:17] Israel seemed pretty poised to continue with the bombing and its defense minister, Yoav Galant, which you've heard a lot from in the past, said that this will be a short respite, after which the fighting will continue with intensity and pressure [00:12:34] will be made to bring back more hostages. At least two more months of fighting is expected. So the Israeli government really has no plan to engage in a prolonged cease fire. They want to go back to war. They want to go back to bombing. [00:12:49] And they've already made clear that once the bombing continues, the target will be in the south, where all of these Palestinians were told to evacuate to for their safety. So the civilian death toll is expected to rise as a result of that. However, Israel did agree to an additional day in the pause for every ten [00:13:08] additional hostages that Hamas releases. And it appears that that is taking place as we speak. But I also want to draw attention to another wrinkle in this story that I don't think is getting enough attention, because the way this is all being framed makes it appear as though all of the hostages that are currently in Gaza [00:13:27] were kidnaped by Hamas. What that leaves out is the fact that there are other gangs that also cross the border into Israel and kidnaped hostages that Hamas does not know the whereabouts of. And this is something that was made clear by the Qatari prime minister. [00:13:44] So let's go back to the Financial Times and their reporting on this. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said to the Financial Times that more than 40 other women and children are being kept captive in Gaza [00:13:59] who were not believed to be held by Hamas. He said the truce could be extended if Hamas was able to use the pause in the conflict to locate those hostages, and in an interview, he said the following if they get additional women and children, there will be an extension. [00:14:17] We don't yet have any clear information how many they can find, because one of the purposes of the pause is they meaning Hamas will have time to search for the rest of the missing people. And he also argues, and I agree with this argument, that there needs to be mercy [00:14:37] on Palestinian civilians, something that the Israeli government and the IDF has no interest in. They again want to go right back to bombing as soon as they can. But the Prime Minister of Qatar also says something that I think is so true. The more you brutalize innocent civilians in Gaza, [00:14:53] the more family members get wiped out. You will see an increase in extremism. So it is counterproductive to on one hand argue, well, we got to root out extremism. We got to root out Hamas, but engage in military actions in the Gaza Strip that [00:15:12] only breeds more extremism and radicalizes more people because they want retaliation after their families have been wiped out. So I just think that this is all so incredibly counterproductive. I hope Israel takes some of the advice that allegedly, the US government [00:15:32] is giving them behind the scenes because, as we know, public facing Biden, public facing Anthony Blinken, public facing John Kirby, every single one of them. Just repeat that Israel has the right to defend themselves, and the US will defend them no matter what and supply the weapons no matter what. [00:15:49] But if it is in fact true that Biden, behind closed doors, is warning Netanyahu to avoid making the same mistakes that the United States government and its military made following the 911 terrorist attacks. [00:16:04] I just hope he takes that advice. I hope he's listening. So far it doesn't seem like it, but I am happy that there's at least an extended pause in the bombings that the Palestinian civilians have been overwhelmingly suffering from. [00:16:20] Hey, thanks for watching the video. We really appreciate it, guys, and we appreciate it if you become members, because that allows us to be independent, honest, progressive, all the things that you don't get from corporate media and all of that is because of you guys. Hit the join button below and become one of us. Become a young Turk.