"If Hamas released the hostages and surrendered, the war would end tomorrow."
Their strongest version
Israel has stated its conditions include the hostages' return and Hamas's removal from power; hostage-taking of civilians is a war crime and their captivity is an ongoing atrocity.
The response
Start where it's true: taking and holding civilian hostages is a war crime, full stop, and demanding their release is right. But the slogan's factual claim has been tested: the pauses that freed hostages came through negotiated ceasefires — November 2023 and January 2025 — not through bombardment, which killed hostages alongside Palestinians (as Israeli hostage families themselves argued in the streets of Tel Aviv for over a year). And the demand runs one direction only: Israel holds thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial, including minors — which its own rights groups (B'Tselem, HaMoked) document. If holding civilians as leverage is the crime that must end before anything else, apply the standard to everyone holding them.