how the actual fuck can you look at pictures and video of terrified people doing what they are told

Hamas lets their freed people speak openly about their experiences. Israel doesn't. That is all you need to know.

You're obviously referring to pictures and videos in some other alternative universe to ours. How much Kool-Aid do you have to drink to look at something like this or this and see "terror" in the released hostages' face???

Do you imagine that Hamas ' reach is so long they can intimidate freed Thai workers and their families back home?

You don't have to believe that Hamas are kind and cuddly tree-hugging hippies singing Kumbaya all day long. You just have to understand that they know that they can't defeat Israel militarily without outside help, not so long as Israel has the support of the USA, but they can win the PR war and gain friends and allies by simply not acting like Israel does. The more Israel acts like Israel always acts, and the more Hamas doesn't, the more Israel will be diplomatically isolated and eventually politically, economically and militarily.

There is absolutely nothing to gain for Hamas to torture or mistreat their captives, and everything to gain by treating them with as much humanity as possible during a war. Including their little dog.

Hamas has done their best to publicise the experiences of every one of the freed Palestinians, while Israel has put their freed hostages under media lockdown and refuses to let them speak freely in case they go off message, like Yocheved Lifshitz did.

Hamas are fighting a resistance war against a hostile, racist regime dominated by religious extremists that openly calls for the elimination of all Palestinians from Greater Israel, whether by ethnic cleansing, forced expulsion, or genocide. I'm not saying that every member of Hamas is as innocent as the driven snow, but they are the moderates in this war. Every Israeli accusation is a confession.