Worse than death.

"At dawn on October 7, the sabbath and a Jewish holiday, rockets rain down on Israel from Gaza as hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrate by land, sea and air into southern Israel. More than 1,400 people, mainly civilians, are killed," and 240, including little children, are taken hostage. NDTV. Israel asked Palestinians to move to the south of Gaza before it started to bomb the north but then, "The Israeli military has released photos that claim to show the Hamas group stopping people from going to southern Gaza." Hamas has been accused of using human shields and "deliberately keeping hostages in places where it knows Israel would carry out bombings." NDTV. "The Hamas group has claimed that almost 50 hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes so far in the Gaza strip, AFP reported." India Today. Hamas also claims that 9,488 Palestinians have been killed so far. In a kind of unbelievable, bloody, tragic farce, Hamas is claiming to be the victims of Zionist aggression and a large number of countries are echoing their cynical propaganda. "The United States and its Arab allies appeared divided over Israel's military offensive in Gaza to defeat Hamas, as Washington, alongside Israel, resisted pressure for an immediate ceasefire despite the rising toll among Palestinian civilians." ET. Arab nations, which are mostly monarchies or cosmetic democracies controlled by strongmen, do not want Palestinian refugees in their countries because Hamas members may hide among them and Iran could use them to create unrest. "Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met with the leader of Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, Iranian state media reported." Reuters. In August, "Saudi border guards are accused of the mass killing of migrants along the Yemeni border in a new report by Human Rights Watch. The report says hundreds of people, many of them Ethiopians who cross war-torn Yemen to reach Saudi Arabia, have been shot dead." BBC. Not surprising, the United Nations has called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire", ignoring the certainty that it will allow Hamas to regroup and get in more supplies. Not that Hamas lacks supplies. "The Israel Defence Force...stated that since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, more than 8,000 rockets have been fired at Israel." ET. In a demonstration of mass stupidity and hysteria, "Bearing flags and united in fury, tens of thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of American cities...to denounce the scope and scale of Israel's military campaign in Gaza." NYT. "Billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman and several other business leaders are demanding Harvard University release the names of students whose organizations signed on to a letter blaming solely Israel for the deadly attacks by Hamas. The CEOs want the students blacklisted." CNN. Dead people do not feel pain but hostages, especially little children, must be constantly terrified and tortured. Kidnapping is much, much worse than murder. The world should demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages unharmed. A ceasefire can be arranged immediately thereafter. Global stupidity will only prolong the conflict. And suffering.