Hamas terrorist released a picture of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker on Saturday — taped the the side of a garbage bag."He will not return alive," Hamas wrote on it's social media account.The tweet drew widespread criticism.."Earlier today, Hamas released a chilling image of hostage Matan Zangauker over an AI image of a bag containing human pieces, paired with a threat that “He will not return alive.”," said Hen Mazzig, author of The Wrong Kind of Jew and Senior Fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute."For hours, they pushed a false narrative: that Israel was mounting a rescue operation for Matan in Gaza. But now it’s clear: that lie was strategic. A calculated move to deter an IDF strike on a key Hamas target by faking the presence of a hostage.""And the timing is a precision cruelty. The image was dropped on Saturday, just before the weekly protests. Matan’s mother is one of the most vocal critics of Netanyahu, Hamas knew exactly what they were doing. They aren’t just playing politics. They’re playing with grief of a mother. This isn’t about negotiations. It’s about weaponizing despair. For Hamas, every hostage is a pawn, used not for peace, but for psychological warfare. There is no bottom to their barbarity..The was some better news Saturday, if you can call it that.Israeli forces were able to find and reclaim one of an Oct. 7, 2023 murder victim whose body was taken into Gaza..Pinta Nattapong, a Thai citizen, was shot and killed in the Nir Oz kibbutz, which was recently visited by the Western Standard.It's believed there are some 50 hostages being held in Gaza, but only half of them are still believed to be alive.
