Is there anything Hamas could do that would be unspinnable even for its army of Western media collaborators? After nearly 500 days, that question appears to have been answered. The haunting scenes from Saturday’s hostage release shocked a few consciences back to life.

Today Hamas announced that it would be unilaterally suspending the cease-fire and refusing to release any more Israeli hostages until further notice. That announcement should be viewed in the context of the world’s reaction to the events of Saturday, when Hamas released three almost unrecognizably emaciated hostages, one of whom seemed to be relearning how to walk as his captors nearly carried him to the awaiting Red Cross vehicle.

Eli Sharabi, a ghost of the man Hamas had taken on Oct. 7, 2023, was forced at gunpoint to say he was looking forward to reuniting with his wife and children, whom Hamas had already murdered unbeknownst to him. It was almost surely the most evil thing most people have ever seen on television.

At first, Western media followed its reflexes and tried to somehow minimize what we all were seeing, which was like a livestreamed shot of the liberation of a concentration camp. The BBC took its best shot: “Concerns have been raised about their wellbeing, with Mr Sharabi’s family — who live in the UK — describing their shock at his ‘gaunt’ appearance. Returning Palestinian prisoners were greeted with scenes of celebration at Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Representatives claimed they all needed ‘medical care’, without giving specifics.”

Rather than describe what they saw, the BBC decided it had to quote a family member describing Sharabi as gaunt, as if it were a matter of interpretation. But you can begin to hear the impatience creep into the BBC’s voice with the third sentence, as if it has finally lost the will to slavishly echo the talking points of monsters. Even the BBC knows the Palestinian representatives are lying—though calling the terrorists released by Israel on Saturday “prisoners” is a reminder that the media very much want to side with Hamas, even when unable to bring themselves to do so.

Throughout the period of the current cease-fire, Hamas has been systematically dismantling its own side’s propaganda. The claim of Israeli “genocide” was always false, but Gaza officials acknowledging that the enclave’s population increased during the war, and that Israeli bombs were mostly dropped on uninhabited neighborhoods, and that Hamas had been using hospitals and humanitarian zones as active war bases made it clear that Israel’s defenders were telling the truth and Hamas’s fans were lying all along.

Then on Saturday Hamas released a propaganda video showing its men keeping Sharabi, Or Levy, and Ohad Ben Ami in a claustrophobic, airless underground cell. We’ve seen Hamasniks driving a fleet of well-maintained vehicles through Gaza and past its gleaming buildings.

At the release ceremony itself, the viewing public was treated to watching well-fed Gazans taking selfies while the gaunt hostages could barely stand. We had already known that Israel had allowed into Gaza enough food for each Palestinian to have 3,000 calories per day. But now we were seeing proof that full-bellied Gazans had been spending the war guarding starving Israeli hostages.

Every claim made against Israel was projection. Hamas had been doing all the things it accused Israel of, accusations that the media gleefully echoed like pet-shop parrots.

And so there was a collective gasp from the world, and a backlash. A gentle backlash, but a backlash nonetheless. Hamas’s co-conspirators in governments and NGOs and news organizations around the world were exposed to their own reflections, and they recoiled.

So how can Hamas release the next round of captives in five days without building on the backlash? Well, it can release non-tortured, non-starving hostages—if it has anyone who meets that description in its dungeons.

There is also the fact that the cease-fire deal had one key strategic advantage for Hamas baked in: Israeli troops were agreeing to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, a military road that bisected the enclave and enabled the IDF to protect some parts of Gaza from Hamas’s return to full strength. On Monday, Israel reportedly withdrew from the corridor.

Israel still has plenty of incentive to hold up its end of the deal—especially now that we know the hostages are clinging to life in Hamas’s torture cells. But what is Hamas’s incentive? If the IDF is out of the Netzarim Corridor, Hamas has been handed back the Gaza Strip. Hamas may decide it has more to lose than to gain from continuing to release hostages.

Perhaps this is the end of the cease-fire, perhaps not. But there’s no going back to a time when one could pretend Israel was the villain here.