Jerusalem Deputy Mayor to Newsmax: Hamas Played Games With Hostages

Hamas only released hostages Saturday after forcing families through seven "hours of agony" while "playing games" with the agreement, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said on Newsmax, Sunday.

"We have our hearts in our throats every day to see if Hamas, which is not known for their honesty and their keeping of their word is actually going to keep their agreement," Hassan-Nahoum commented during an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."

The hostages' families were told their loved ones were being released, but "then Hamas started playing games, wanting to push off the release of the hostages and creating excuses of why the hostages were not being released and trying to push the terms of the agreement," she added.

It took a threat from the Israeli government to end the deal to release hostages, and Hamas finally turned them over at 11 p.m., Hassan-Nahoum said.

Even then, Hamas breached its agreement, as it had said family units were being released but that did not happen, she continued.

"They released a daughter without her mother," said Hassan-Nahoum. "They released a sister without her brother, and they released a brother and a sister who lost their mother, who was murdered by Hamas and they've only got their father left in the world. They released them without their father, so it was complete cruelty until the very end."

Meanwhile, she said she agrees with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's strong criticism of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's comments about the release of a 9-year-old Israeli-Irish girl, Emily Hand.

Varadkar wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after the release that "This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered."

Twitter users added context to the prime minister's post, pointing out that the child was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and released in exchange for several Palestinian prisoners, and Cohen responded on X, accusing Varadkar of trying to "legitimize" the situation.

"Maybe you have lost your moral compass and your connection to reality," he wrote. "Emily Hand was kidnapped by a terrorist organization worse than ISIS after her stepmother was murdered. Emily and over 30 other Israeli children were kidnapped by Hamas, and you are trying to legitimize it. Shame on you!"

"The girl was lost?" Hassan-Nahoum said in response. "Like we lost her at the park. We lost her at the beach? Like she got lost in the crowd? She was abducted from her home. God knows what she's already seen, what she experienced there."

The Irish prime minister, she added, ignored the fact that a "genocidal terrorist organization that has decapitated babies, raped women, abducted innocents, including a 10-month-old baby, You don't talk about that … he has lost his mind and I don't need his sigh of relief because he is obviously somebody who does not want to see evil for what it is for his own political agenda. He's disgraceful and his country should be ashamed of him."

Hamas, she added, created its headquarters under a hospital and has hidden rockets and ammunition in children's bedrooms.

"This is an organization that purposely embeds itself in the civilian population to create loss of life of its own people," said Hassan-Nahoum. "That's how they treat their own people … there's evil and there's good and these people are simply evil and everybody should see who they are, including the prime minister of Ireland, who got very confused. "

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