Conditioning the end of the slaughter to Hamas' surrender is merely prolonging it, and providing cover for it. Why ask for something that you know your opponent is not going to give, unless you are not interested in honest good faith negotiations or in ending the "war" anytime soon.
I'm not sure if you've noticed the condition of Gazan prisoners that have been released from Israeli prisons after months of torture and starvation and now walking skeletons, amputees or suffering mental illnesses - and none of them actually having been charged with anything - but it's not conducive to anyone wishing to surrender to be subject to that abuse and likely much, much worse.
Hell, even if they all surrender, Israel will claim that there are more in hiding and continue the bombing and starvation.
There is no upside to surrendering for Hamas. Anyone hanging their hat on that is being disingenuous or naive at best, and callous towards the suffering at worst.
So very tired of the "hiding behind civilians" fake narrative. It's a diabolical, nasty piece of propaganda that subverts humanitarian law into something totally unrecognizable in order to try to rationalize the high rate of civilian deaths. Just look at the Where's Daddy AI program, that waits until the targets are home with their families and neighbours to carry-out the bombing. Choosing to kill them at home rather than while they are engaged in military activity and then claiming those people were "human shields". There are no human shields in Gaza, only humans that are being slaughtered and conveniently given this label post-slaughter.
If there actually were human shields - and there are not - Israel would have a responsibility to keep them from harm, not use that status as a greenlight to kill them - which is another reason none of it ever made sense to me. The targeting of civilians is just one of many of its war crimes, as outlined in the independent panel of UN Commissioners' report which stats confirms everything many of us have been saying.
I agree that Hamas badly misread Israel's response, but really most people could not have predicted this level of savagery and war criminality. Israel is certainly determined but not in the way you imply. It's determined to inflict collective punishment, exact maximum revenge and make Gaza unlivable in order to have most of the people "evacuated" or "voluntarily emigrated", aka ethnically cleansed.
Who seriously believes the body count? Not me and not many others. It is a serious undercount, the true numbers once known - if ever - will be staggering. Truth and accountability, I sure hope so.
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