In watching the “60 Minutes” piece about the Israeli hostages, with interviews by Lesley Stahl, you can sense that CBS does not like having their narrative upended.

So, how does “60 Minutes” and Stahl try to square the circle and portray the hostages as victims, but not fully blame Hamas? Simple. Blame Netanyahu and the government! Just watch the first 35 seconds of the “60 Minutes” package and try not to throw things.

Lesley Stahl’s opening lines in those 35 seconds are as follows:

Statistics tell the grim story of the October 7th, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. 1200 civilians and soldiers slaughtered that day. 251 taken hostage – men, women, and children. Since then, an estimated 50,000 Gazans have been killed. Twelve days ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed the bombing of Gaza, breaking a fragile ceasefire that was exceedingly popular with Israelis.

Let’s start with the initial framing. Stahl has just reduced the entire conflict to a numbers game. By mentioning the number of dead on October 7th, and the number of hostages, and then bringing up an “estimated” number of dead in Gaza, she is openly implying that the response by Israel has been overkill, and that this is all their fault.

But where did Stahl and “60 Minutes” even GET that number of dead in Gaza? Apparently, they are rounding down from what the medical journal The Lancet published in January when the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tried to estimate the number of dead. But where did their initial numbers come from? The “Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) hospital lists, an MoH online survey, and social media obituaries.” That means they got their numbers from Hamas (because they ARE the government in Gaza), Hamas’s online survey, and social media posts. Even the New York Times admits those numbers come from Hamas, but got used for this study anyway. Then the numbers got inflated, thanks to this extrapolation model.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis, led by epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, used modeling in an effort to provide an objective third-party estimate of casualties. The United Nations has relied on the figure from the Hamas-led Ministry of Health, which it says has been largely accurate, but which Israel criticizes as inflated.

But the new analysis suggests the Hamas health ministry tally is a significant undercount. The researchers concluded that the death toll from Israel’s aerial bombardment and military ground operation in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024 was about 64,300, rather than the 37,900 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The estimate in the analysis corresponds to 2.9 percent of Gaza’s prewar population having been killed by traumatic injury, or one in 35 inhabitants. The analysis did not account for other war-related casualties such as deaths from malnutrition, water-borne illness or the breakdown of the health system as the conflict progressed.

The study found that 59 percent of the dead were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not establish what share of the reported dead were combatants.

The study claimed that Hamas was underreporting deaths by 41 percent, if they used their model. So basically, any death that happened in Gaza after October 7th is Israel’s fault. “60 Minutes” apparently split the difference and went with the nice round “50,000” number, without giving any citation for where they magically pulled that number from – all while implying that Israel is just indiscriminately killing people in Gaza.

Then Stahl brings up the ceasefire, and claims Israel “broke” it. No. Hamas broke the ceasefire, because they refused to agree to any terms for stage two of the deal. When Hamas refused to continue negotiating, the deal was over. Was Israel just supposed to sit and wait for Hamas to come back to bargain? Apparently, that is what Stahl thinks, and that Netanyahu is to blame. She also mentions that the “ceasefire” was “popular.” The ceasefire deal was a means to an end – getting the hostages back. Saving the hostages is what the Israeli public wants, and if it takes a ceasefire to get them back, then they will support that. But while Israel has been on the move again, they have been taking out Hamas leaders – and I imagine THAT is very popular in Israel, too.

But then “60 Minutes” shifts their focus, and they give airtime to former hostages to detail what happened. Yarden Bibas is the first one on camera, and he makes it very clear – his wife and children were murdered.

Bibas lived through much of the deadly bombing in Gaza before his release during a January ceasefire. During his time in captivity, he was forced to sit on camera after he was told by Hamas that his wife and sons were killed by an Israeli air raid. Israeli officials have since said that forensic evidence shows Bibas’ children were killed by their captors.

“They were all murdered in cold blood, bare hands,” Bibas said. “They [Hamas] used to tell me ‘Oh, doesn’t matter. You’ll get a new wife. Get new kids. Better wife. Better kids.'”

Shortly after Bibas was freed in January, Hamas released the bodies of his wife and children as part of a ceasefire deal.

Nothing about the gruesome spectacle that Hamas put on while parading out caskets that listed October 7th as an “arrest date.” Nothing about the insane bait-and-switch with Shiri’s body, which was returned days later. Just a focus on Yarden, pleading for a ceasefire. “60 Minutes” would like to tell people that Yarden wants a ceasefire because he wants peace. It’s pretty clear that Yarden Bibas believes that a ceasefire is the only way to safely save more hostages. That is the driving perspective of all the hostages that were interviewed, and their families. What is not openly acknowledged by “60 Minutes,” but gets spelled out quite bluntly by the former hostages, is that the reason they are fighting so hard for a ceasefire is because the remaining hostages may either die or be killed while waiting for something to happen. Keith Siegel, a dual Israeli-American citizen, and his wife Aviva were also part of this interview, and Keith did not shy away from the brutality of Hamas.

The Siegels lived in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the border with Gaza, and were taken from their home. They were driven into Gaza and taken down into a tunnel.

“We were gasping for our breath,” Keith Siegel said.

Aviva was with her husband for 51 days, until she was released during a brief ceasefire in 2023. They were held with several women and children, and said there was constant abuse.

“I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorists. I mean literal, you know, torture, not just in the figurative sense,” Keith Siegel said.

He said female hostages were sexually assaulted, with other captives made to watch.

Siegel said conditions worsened for him after his wife was released and that early ceasefire collapsed.

“The terrorists became very mean, and very cruel, and violent,” he said.

The Israeli-American said he was beaten and starved. His captors would eat in front of him. He said once a month, he would get half a bucket of cold water to clean himself.

His spirit, he said, was broken.

“I felt that I was completely dependent on the terrorists, that my life relied on them, whether they were gonna give me food, bring me water, protect me from the mobs that would lynch me,” he said. “I was left alone several times and I was very, very scared that maybe they won’t come back and I’ll be left there. And what do I do then?”

Later, in the “60 Minutes Overtime” that was released on YouTube, the Siegels meet up with Agam Berger and video chat with Liri Albag, two of the Israeli soldiers that they were held captive with.

While the reunion is wonderful, it should be sobering as well. Keith said in his interview that female hostages were tortured and sexually assaulted, and while he doesn’t name any names, knowing that Agam Berger and Liri Albag were with the Siegels, and that the five female IDF soldiers who were kidnapped at the observation post were all kept together until shortly before their release, should tell us a lot about what those women went through – and that others were forced to watch it happen.

And while Lesley Stahl appears horrified at these first-hand accounts, she also seems determined to find an excuse for the Hamas terrorists. She outright asked Keith Siegel if he was starved because his captors didn’t have food for themselves. He was clear that they had food, and that his starvation was intentional.

60 Minutes interview recap: the only people intentionally starved in Gaza are Israeli hostages.
Former hostage Keith Siegel described being deliberately starved while Hamas terrorists ate in front of him. pic.twitter.com/OkUNbk439l

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 31, 2025

But Stahl keeps harping on the fact that these hostages have become advocates “for ceasefire” when they should be “quietly healing.” Again, the ceasefire that the former hostages are advocating for is a means to an end. If there was a way to get the remaining hostages out without a ceasefire, it probably would draw support from the former hostages and the families, as well as the Israeli public. Short of the few rescues that have been pulled off, there has been no reliable way to extract hostages out of Gaza without intense negotiation.

And those negotiations continue, because Hamas knows that Israel will continue to bargain with the devil so long as they hold at least one living hostage, and even the dead bodies of hostages. There has been a recent Hamas offer, and an Israeli counteroffer, but it takes two sides to negotiate. It is interesting, however, that the hostages are appealing directly to President Trump for help, and that Lesley Stahl doesn’t appear surprised about that. But “60 Minutes” definitely framed their piece as anti-Netanyahu, though that is not a fair assessment of how Netanyahu has worked to bring about and continue these hostage deals.

Despite the biased framing, the leading questions, and the numbers pulled out of a hat, this piece does show just how horrific the situation was for the hostages – even if “60 Minutes” itself can’t seem to admit that Hamas did this all deliberately. Letting the former hostages speak for themselves is effective, but having them relive the most terrible moments of their lives, including breaking down on camera, and then Lesley Stahl complains that they aren’t getting to “quietly heal”? Spare me.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click