The "uninvolved" were part of the Hamas system, which held all seven hostages that the IDF has so far released in "civilian" residential apartments: Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv (in Nuseirat), Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har (in Rafah) and the soldier Ori Megidish (in an apartment in the Shati refugee camp).
Many of the "uninvolved" neighbors knew. Most remained silent. Hamas itself, in order not to appear as having been negligent in guarding the hostages, admitted time and again that "the released Israeli prisoners were with civilians, not with Hamas," thus providing further proof, for those who still needed it, of how involved the "uninvolved" were in Hamas terrorism.
David Tahar, the father of the late Sgt. Adir Tahar, who fell in the battles on Oct. 7, described how the IDF found his son's severed head near Palestine Square in the center of Gaza, inside a backpack in a freezer in an ice cream shop. The terrorists who murdered him tried to sell his head to greedy "uninvolved" for thousands of dollars so that they could make more money off of Israel.
How quickly the world forgets. Some 20,000 "uninvolved" workers from Gaza entered Israel daily before the massacre for many long months. They were employed in the areas surrounding Gaza, Sderot, and Ofakim. Some of them prepared for the massacre and recorded details about the targets: the number of residential homes and bedrooms, the location of shelters and living rooms, how many family members lived in each house, and where cars were parked. Everything went to Hamas. It was part of the infrastructure for the pogrom. The "uninvolved's" contribution to the horror.
The "uninvolved," thousands of them, "demonstrated" on the eve of the massacre right next to the fence, buried explosives along it and marked weak points. They took part in the great deception operation, which succeeded for Hamas beyond all expectations.
During the massacre itself, after the infiltration, thousands of "uninvolved" arrived in the area around Gaza, some barefoot, to complete the job: murder, looting, and arson. On Oct. 7, they danced like madmen around the trucks with the kidnapped children, women, elderly, and youths, chanting "Death to the Jews," and helping Hamas hide them.
The "uninvolved" assisted Hamas in moving rockets to hiding places. "Uninvolved" teachers taught Gazan children that it is a religious duty to kill Jews, and "uninvolved" mothers declared they were proud to send their children to battle to become "shahids" (martyrs).
During the war, it became clear that in the thousands of homes of "uninvolved" families, weapons were buried, rockets were hidden, or tunnels were dug as part of Hamas' tunnel network in the strip. Last Saturday, some "uninvolved" joined the siege that Hamas terrorists tried to impose on the stuck rescue vehicle in which three of the hostages were staying.
The list of events in which the "uninvolved" were involved, whether in a terror-supporting environment or beyond that, is long, and there is not enough space to detail it. And yet, one more small detail: Hundreds of thousands of Gazans voted for Hamas in 2006, whose charter called for the destruction of the Jews and the State of Israel, giving it 18 out of 24 directly elected seats in the strip. They accurately reflected the choice of Gaza's residents.
