Will the comments from the latest freed hostages

alter the course of the situation in Gaza?

Reports that Hamas is treating hostages humanely (food reserves down there, providing shampoo and conditioner, treating the elderly gently), must surely enable the various intermediary governments to put some pressure on Israel regarding its treatment of the wider Palestinian population or am I too optimistic in my faith that the good in people will always prevail eventually?

Too optimistic. The poor woman's husband is still held hostage in Gaza. She might have an incentive to make nice with her/his kidnappers.

Or too optimistic that all the hostages are still alive and that Hamas is indeed treating them all so well. Some appeared to be injured when taken away and given the state of hospitals in Gaza I fear that they are possibly no longer alive.

They gave some cream cheese to their kidnap victim so we can all forget the beheadings and (according to an arrested terrorist) necrophilia?

Who said anything about forgetting. Let's also not conflate the entire 2m+ population of Gaza and the West Bank with Hamas.

Hence my question regarding Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people

Clip on reddit yesterday was of elderly men, purportedly ex-IDF fighters, acknowledging - with stomach churning smiles and titters - mistreatment, rape, and murder of civilians in previous conflicts.

So far as I can tell ALMOST ALL MILITARY ORGANISATIONS have been caught doing this in the past (Britain, US, France, Russia; if you go back further Japan, Germany, Italy, China) but it's relevant now, when the essence of Israel's case for brutally and indiscriminately attacking Gaza with bombs and rockets is that the Hamas operatives mistreated, raped and murdered civilians ten days ago.

I haven't had any opportunity to check the provenance of the clip, but it looked like an excerpt from a documentary. Speaking personally I don't even know if they were speaking Hebrew.