On the ceasefire negotiations, more priority and airtime has been given to the hostages than to the victims of 15 months’ worth of bombardment and siege. While it is vital that the fate of the hostages is given proper airtime, recognising that the ICC and Human Rights Watch have both called for war crimes prosecutions for Hamas leaders given illegal conduct on October 7th, it does not mean that the Palestinian victims of Israel’s conduct since then should not be discarded or deemed as less important.
Additionally, post 15 January 2025, when the ceasefire, albeit tentative, came into being, there have been reports from journalists on the ground in Gaza that the terms of the ceasefire had occasionally been violated by the Israeli army. This was rarely reported on BBC news outlets, with much of the focus being on the hostage exchange.
On the BBC news website, there has been multiple articles going through the hostages taken by Hamas and their backgrounds, yet rarely anything on the thousands of Palestinian prisoners detained without charges by the Israeli army. For example, here, the personal stories of the hostages released are highlighted, while there is not much mentioned about the women and child detainees that were released from the Israeli prisons. More specifically, the statistics and testimonies from Israeli prisons as highlighted by the Welcome to Hell report from Israeli human rights organisation BT’selem is not really looked at. While it is important to give balance, there is a discrepancy on where the weight lies and to whom importance is given.