On Tuesday, the terror organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video depicting an Israeli hostage, 28-year-old Alexander "Sasha" Trupanov, who was kidnapped during the vicious October 7th attack launched by Hamas into Isreal. 

See Related: Israeli Military Finds Bodies of Three Hostages

Three More Bodies of Israeli Hostages Found Overnight

Trupanov is reportedly being held somewhere in Gaza:

A terrorist group in Gaza released a hostage video on Tuesday of an Israeli Amazon employee who was kidnapped during Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attacks – and has been held in the war-torn enclave ever since.

Sasha Troufanov [sic], a 28-year-old computer engineer with the Tel Aviv-based microelectronics firm Annapurna Labs, an Amazon subsidiary, wore a black, white and red polo in the video, which he addressed to the Israeli public and “all of the protesters,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

Troufanov [sic] – who is being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad – added that “in the next few days, you will hear the truth of what happened to me, as well as the other prisoners in Gaza.”

Note that he says "happened," in the past tense. That doesn't bode well:

He also asked people to “wait patiently,” the outlet said.

“The proof of life from Alexander (Sasha) Trpfanov [sic] is additional evidence that the Israeli government must give a significant mandate to the negotiating team, which will be able to lead to a deal for the return of all the hostages – the living to rehabilitation and the murdered to burial,” the Hostages & Missing Families Forum said in a statement after the video’s release.

A copy of the video can be watched here. 

At this point, it seems obvious that the only way the remaining hostages will be released is if Israel makes an unacceptable deal that leaves Hamas or their equivalent in control in Gaza, or if the Israel Defense Forces go in and take them back.

See Related: Even As ICC Pressures Netanyahu to Stand Down, Hamas Once Again Launches Rockets Into Israel From Rafah 

NEW: IDF Confirms It Took Out 2 Top Hamas Commanders in Airstrike on Rafah

Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems to keep admonishing Israel to show restraint, and to consider the "humanitarian aspects" of the whole thing.

It's important to retain a little perspective here. Some days it seems as the entire world is yammering at Israel - not Hamas, but Israel - for a ceasefire in their war with Hamas. Well, Hamas had a ceasefire, right up until they launched an attack on Israel on October 7th of last year, an attack so horrifying, so barbarous, so vicious, as to send shockwaves around the planet. Hamas had a ceasefire and they broke it, in a storm of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. They murdered and raped; they executed the elderly along with children and even infants. It is the actions of Hamas that put themselves, by their actions, beyond the comprehension of civilized people anywhere.

Israel is within its rights to bend every effort to bring its people home. It is also within its rights to hunt down every single Hamas terrorist and un-alive them, with prejudice. This is a war between civilization and savagery. The acts committed by Hamas on October 7th were acts of savagery; of evil. And evil must be answered for. Justice must be done. Israel seems pretty determined to do exactly that.