JERUSALEM, Israel – During Wednesday's meeting between President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, they agreed to work together to free the hostages held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
The meeting came after an Israeli TV channel released remarkable video inside Gaza of Palestinian rage against Hamas.
The White House discussion raised hopes of the families whose loved ones are still in captivity.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan paraphrased President Biden, saying he's ready "to do everything in our collective American power to secure the release of the hostages."
However, not all the hostages in Gaza are held by Hamas. Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a propaganda video of their hostage, Sasha Trufanov. Trufanov's mother, Lena, had mixed emotions seeing the video.
"On the one hand I am very happy to see him alive and I see him talking, and on the other hand I see that he is not in a good mental or physical state," she noted.
Inside Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces released hundreds of hours of closed-circuit television footage.
The IDF claims the materials expose how Hamas brutally tortured civilians suspected of opposing Hamas' rule. Some were hung upside down. Others were tied up in agonizing positions, and still others were tortured while their captors sat inches away, talking to themselves or completing paperwork.
Also, an Israeli Channel 12 reporter got exclusive access into Gaza and heard an unfiltered view from a number of Gazans.
One said, “If you speak out against Hamas, what will happen? They’ll kill us. They’re terrorists. Hamas is terrorists. Everyone say it with me, Hamas are terrorists. Hamas are terrorists. Hamas are terrorists. May God take his revenge on you, Sinwar (the dead former leader of Hamas). May God burn you in your grave."
The video showed IDF soldiers providing water and medical aid.
The Israeli reporter told the Gazans,“It’s okay, they want to help you, okay? Okay? Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.
Gazan women responded, "May God take revenge on Hamas, and the wretched day they came to us! Butcher them. Butcher Hamas! Kill them wherever you see them, butcher them! We don’t want them. We want them to leave us alone.”
Several men on crutches explained how they were wounded.
The reporter asked them about aid coming in from Israel "I'm trying to understand something, Israel lets trucks come into Northern Gaza," he said.
The men replied, "They (Hamas) take it. They steal it. They steal it."
"Hamas steals it?" the reporter asked.
"I’d rather starve to death," one man answered.
"They steal it in front of you?"
"Yes in front of me, in front of me," he said. "And if you say a word, they’ll shoot you... And shoot you in a way that will leave you handicapped.”
Many of the Gazan Palestinian women said they favored Israel.
“Wipe Hamas off the face of the earth! We’re with you! We’re with you! We’re with you," they exclaimed.
The reporter clarified, "You’re with us, meaning the Israeli people?"
"The Israeli people," they responded. "Everything good comes from you. My husband worked for you, all the good is with you, you’re the blessing.”
The woman then kissed the reporter.
The television report also noted hundreds of Hamas terrorists have been surrendering, a sign of how the IDF has weakened the terror group.
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