Instead of tarnishing the image of Hamas internationally, the US-Israeli alliance has failed to undermine the Islamic Resistance Movement as being an actor akin to al-Qaeda. In fact, their repeated lies and ongoing genocidal attack on the people of Gaza have elevated Hamas throughout the Middle East and even won support in Western countries, where citizens are beginning to look critically at the group.

The seven-day temporary-ceasefire agreement worked to dismantle the Israeli image, as the attached prisoner exchange proved that Hamas had undoubtedly treated the Israeli captives better than the Zionist Entity had treated the Palestinians. Many Westerners were even shocked by the mere announcement of the prisoner exchange, which sent the mainstream corporate media into damage control mode. The shock came, not at the fact that “Israel” keeps Palestinians in their detention, but at the fact that they were holding so many women and children, many without any charge at all. 

Part of the Israeli victim narrative, which works to paint October 7 as the worst event in the history of the Palestine-Zionist conflict, is that Hamas gunmen were so inhumane that they took women and children as hostages. After Zionists spent 6 weeks putting up posters of the women and children that were being held captive in Gaza, it was suddenly revealed to a Western audience that the Israeli military has been holding many times the number of Palestinian women and children hostage. Hamas presented a list that included 300 names of those hostages that it requested to be exchanged for the Israelis it was holding. These Palestinian hostages, which Israeli officials have tried to paint as “terrorists”, are mostly held in administrative detention [held without a charge], many of them for years. The Zionist Entity’s military court system also has a near 100% conviction rate, so the chance of a fair trial is practically zero.

When the world saw the Israeli prisoners released, they saw many of them waving, smiling, shaking hands with Hamas fighters and even thanking them in Arabic. The Zionist regime learned from the public relations disaster that took place when Hamas had decided to release four Israelis it was holding captive in Gaza, which it released without any pre-conditions and for humanitarian reasons. When one of the Israeli women spoke to the media, she spoke of having been treated well while in Hamas custody. So, the Israeli government decided to prevent its released citizens from talking to the media. This is obviously the behavior of the guilty. 

Palestinians who were released from Israeli military prisons spoke immediately upon being released, and we heard their testimonies on a daily basis, all of them detailing the horrifying conditions in which they were kept. One woman who was released, told the story of how she was threatened with being gang raped by Israeli soldiers, while Palestinian icon, Ahed Tamimi, spoke about the horrifying abuse that the female Palestinian political prisoners faced. Ahed spoke about being threatened with the murder of her father, well-known West Bank activist Bassem Tamimi, if she spoke up about what happened to her. She continued to share that the women were being forced to sleep on the floor, without beds, were routinely abused and even tortured.

Anyone looking at the evidence has to come to the obvious conclusion that Hamas treats its Israeli civilian prisoners better than the Israelis treat the Palestinian civilians they hold captive. The big difference here is, Hamas is a non-State actor under international law and is not generally expected to uphold the same standards as a member of the United Nations. When it comes to the civilian to combatant death tolls between the two sides, it is also clear that Hamas-led attacks result in a much better civilian to soldier ratio. After Israeli occupation forces have now massacred over 20,000 civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, including over 8,000 children, it is apparent that Zionists are behaving in a similar manner to Daesh.

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In fact, the Israeli army doesn't only have a higher civilian-to-combatant death toll than Hamas, their child-to-combatant death toll is higher than the Hamas ratio of soldiers to civilians killed. If the Zionists weren’t openly making genocidal statements on a near-daily basis, with everyone from the Israeli President and Prime Minister, to the members of the opposition in the Knesset, openly calling for mass murdering civilians, they may have been able to avoid the charge of genocide, but they just couldn’t help themselves.

US President Joe Biden had started off by comparing Hamas to Daesh, later pivoting to try and claim that Hamas was akin to Russia. Although politicians in the United States believe this to be an effective strategy at portraying the Palestinian resistance group in a negative way, the American President has now upgraded Hamas to being akin to one of the most important States in the United Nations. This, as NATO member-State Türkiye has called the Israelis terrorists while bolstering the image of Hamas as a legitimate resistance group. Emerging superpower, China, has made strong calls for establishing a Palestinian State and repeatedly condemned the Israeli assault on Gaza while refraining from condemning Hamas.

All throughout the Arab and Muslim World, the spokesperson for the military wing of Hamas, Abu Obaida of the Qassam Brigades, has become a hero. This, as even politicians in Washington are beginning to admit that crushing the Palestinian resistance is no simple task. When it comes to military achievements, the Israelis have failed to produce a single victory, even the videos they release of their activities on the ground in Gaza have largely consisted of them firing into open areas and empty buildings. On the other hand, Qassam Brigades fighters have carried out some of the most daring attacks ever filmed against Israeli tanks and infantry. This, as the video evidence from the October 7 attack shows a complete dismantling of the Zionist military in the south of occupied Palestine.

Israeli propaganda that has been produced sloppily inside Gaza, to justify invading the likes of the Rantissi Children's Hospital and al-Shifa Hospital, embarrassed their US backers and exposed them as liars. US President, Joe Biden, who was also caught lying about seeing pictures of Israeli beheaded babies, lied about the non-existent Hamas base in al-Shifa Hospital. At this point, even in the West, the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari is being called the “there is a list guy” and has been transformed into a meme.

When it comes to the Israeli propaganda surrounding the October 7 attack, they continue to make up even more ridiculous fairy tales about what happened. The latest fable was that Hamas has hung Israeli children from clothing lines, this has been added to a long list of utter nonsense stories that have not a shred of evidence to back them up. It has become so embarrassing that you start to feel sorry for them, before turning back to social media and seeing that they have just murdered more children in Gaza.

It has gotten to the level that the Israeli regime has become cartoonishly evil. This image of the Israelis has not been achieved through a calculated media campaign from the Palestinian resistance groups, it has simply come to be as a result of the actions taken by the Zionists themselves. It seems like it is every other day another Zionist leader makes a genocidal comment, or there is a piece of goofy Zionist propaganda that is quickly debunked. Official Israeli social media pages are deleting posts after they are exposed for using fake, misleading or dated videos, photos or audio recordings.

Perhaps it is that the Zionist Entity believes the world to be idiots, that they have been able to cover up and obfuscate for so long that they thought it would be easy to justify their war crimes. Or, maybe, they have been so incredibly embarrassed by the military blows inflicted upon them, and their imaginary “deterrence capacity”, that they have become complacent and the mask has fallen. Compulsive liars often trap themselves in their sea of contradictory and never ending fabrications, which is what appears to be happening here.

With all of this being said and the media war having been won by those in support of human rights, the mass support that is coming from the majority of the world's public in favor of Palestine, has not yet succeeded in ending Israeli horrifying crimes in Gaza. This is to say that the public's pressure has to continue to be applied upon their governments. Although it is clear that Hamas has emerged as more credible than ever, with more support than prior to October 7, the real support does not lend itself to Hamas, but rather to the just cause of the Palestinian people. While many would not side with Hamas as a political party, they do side with Palestinian resistance, or in the case of the West, most align themselves with the cause of liberation and freedom for the people of Palestine.