Cotton: Hold Hamas responsible for Palestinian casualties in hostage rescue, not Israel

Those chastising the Israeli Defense Forces over its hostage-rescue casualty count might want to refocus their ire on the kidnappers themselves, as far as supporters of Israel are concerned.

Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, blasted leftists and establishment media outlets for second-guessing the Israeli Defense Forces mission that saved four Israelis held by Hamas since the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians.

“I’m very dismayed by sources from the progressive left here in America, to include the New York Times and Washington Post, who are somehow condemning Israel for saving four hostages at the cost of supposedly more than 200 Palestinians,” Mr. Cotton said on “Fox News Sunday.”

The New York Times came under criticism for a Saturday headline that said, “Hostages Return Home After Israeli Assault That Killed Scores of Gazans,” a framing that former New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind called “outrageous.”

“The New York Times is the best friend that Hamas could possibly have,” Mr. Hikind said in a Sunday video post. “Shame on the New York Times. If you are still buying the New York Times, stop.”

On the other side were critics who chided the newspaper for using “scores” instead of “hundreds.”

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Sunday that 274 Palestinians were killed in the raid, while the IDF estimated Saturday that the mission resulted in fewer than 100 casualties. The Ministry also does not distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters.

The four hostages — Noa Argamani, 26; Almog Meir Jan, 22; Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41 — were found in two apartments in a residential area of Nuseirat in southern Gaza, according to the IDF.

“Now, we can’t take at face value what Hamas says through the supposed Gaza Ministry of Health,” Mr. Cotton said. “But my advice to them would be: If you don’t want your people killed in hostage rescue missions, then you shouldn’t take hostages in the first place … and you certainly shouldn’t hide them in civilian areas.”

Those asking whether the juice was worth the squeeze included Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali, who said on X: “Is killing more than 200 Palestinian civilians worth 4 Israeli hostages? A question worth asking on the record.”

Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian-controlled territories, said she was relieved the hostages had been “released,” but that it came at too high a cost.

“It should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed and over 400 injured by Israel and allegedly foreign soldiers, while perfidiously hiding in an aid truck,” she said on X.

BBC anchor Helena Humphrey asked former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus why Israel didn’t warn the Gazans ahead of the mission.

He replied that doing so would have doomed the hostages.

“We can’t anticipate Israel to be warning ahead of a raid to extract or to save hostages because then what the terrorists would do is to kill the hostages, and that would defeat the purpose,” Mr. Conricus said.

Mr. Conricus, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the lines between combatants and civilians in Gaza are often blurred.

“By the way, the people who were guarding and forcing the Israeli civilians to stay there were Palestinian civilians,” Mr. Conricus told Fox News. “It’s all a civilian situation here.”

Indeed, the IDF said Sunday that one of those housing the hostages at his apartment was journalist Abdallah Aljamal, whose credentials included co-authoring a 2019 article for Al-Jazeera headlined “Tales of torture from Israel’s prisons,” as shown on the Al Jazeera website.

“’Journalist’ Abdallah Aljamal was a Hamas terrorist holding Almog, Andrey and Shlomi hostage in his family’s home in Nuseirat,” said the IDF on X. “No press vest can make him innocent of the crimes he has committed.”

Omar al-Walid, Al-Jazeera Jerusalem bureau chief, denied any connection to Aljamal, who was killed in the raid.

“This man is not from Al-Jazeera, and he did not work for Al-Jazeera at all, and he is not listed as working for Al-Jazeera neither now nor in the past,” Mr. al-Walid told the Times of Israel. “We do not know him, and all the rumors that have been spread are empty of content and not true at all.”

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