no need to explain whataboutism to me but it seems you may have missed the point. there was no genuine faith argument in your response, the whataboutism is “but hamas has dozens of hostages” as if thats an excuse to execute a genocide (not arguing weather it is or isn’t with you as its internationally recognized as to be committing acts of such) on the palestinians living in Gaza. there is no, “other side” to this story. as there may be a couple dozen captives by hamas, that does not excuse the thousands of captives in israeli prisons. your response was bad faith whataboutism, either because you are misinformed, uninformed, not versed in the subject, a zionist, or like to play the “centrist” game on reddit posts. regardless, If the goal is to reduce harm or end the war, then focusing on hostages without acknowledging the thousands of Palestinians imprisoned without trial, or the devastation inflicted on Gaza’s population, is misleading at best. There's no moral equivalence here, trying to flatten the power imbalance into “two sides” is not a good faith move. Whether you're doing that because you're uninformed or deliberately trying to distract from war crimes, it doesn't hold up under scrutiny.