Hamas hostage releases are a daily mix of horror and relief. And this is the easy part

The ceasefire has been extended for another day but what will happen if there is an “all for all” offer – to free remaining hostages in exchange for every jailed terrorist and ending the war?

Over the past week, the world has watched as a trickle of hostages has emerged from Gaza: children, mothers, old women, Thai workers from the other side of the world.

The first testimonies exposed a little of their experiences. Plastic chairs as beds. Irregular meals of bread and rice. Hours spent waiting for the bathroom.

The future of other hostages remains uncertain. The Bibas family – a 10-month-old baby, a four-year-old and their two parents –  have become a symbol of the problem of managing hostage releases.

The Israeli army notified the Bibas family on Wednesday that it is investigating a claim by Hamas that three of its members held hostage in Gaza were killed while in captivity.

Hamas claims Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 10 months, were killed in a Gaza bombing. There were no reports on the condition of Yarden Bibas, 34, who was also kidnapped with his wife and kids from kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.  It appears that Hamas abducted the Bibas family but handed them to another terrorist group.

So far, the ceasefire has held and hostages are continuing to be released, but once women and children have been released there are questions over the continuing viability of the deal that swaps hostages for Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Times of Israel Editor David Horovitz predicts next will come the terrorists’ offer to free all the rest of those they seized on October 7, which will be mainly soldiers and former soldiers — in return for all of the Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel: “All of the murderers, all of the instigators and orchestrators and perpetrators of terrorism, including all of those who were captured in Israel on and soon after October 7.

“The offer will likely have been negotiated or brokered by Qatar — the currently much-hailed nimble truce-maker … whose funding has helped keep Hamas in power. And it will be presented, and lapped up around much of the world that is unable or unwilling to distinguish between those who seek to protect life and those hell-bent on ending it, as eminently reasonable: Your armed men and women for ours. And that won’t be the full extent of the offer. The return of the rest of Israel’s hostages will also require an end to the war.

Horovitz doesn’t expect this Israeli government – or probably any other – to agree.

“But what of the families? Unpersuaded by the argument that it is the Israeli offensive that has pressured Hamas into the releases thus far, fearful that a resumed offensive would harm their loved ones, and believing the “all for all” offer to be their last hope, some may clamour from the rooftops to take the deal — and who could blame them?”, he writes.

“What of the international community, much of which will accuse Israel of needlessly pounding Gaza, with all the consequent death and destruction, when the opportunity is purportedly there to restore the status quo. (The status quo, that is, give or take 1200 slaughtered Israelis, a jubilant, adulated Hamas still standing in Gaza, soaring popularity for mass-murdering Islamic extremism in the West Bank, and a hugely emboldened Iran.)

“And what, most of all, of the United States, and a president who has hitherto consistently endorsed Israel’s stated determination to eliminate Hamas?”

If there is not a deal for the release of all hostages, the conduct of the war will be affected by the powerful impact of emotional reunifications over the past week.

“Hamas will continue to toy with the hostages, their families and the entire Israeli public. What if there is only a partial list? Not the 10 per day previously agreed upon, but just one or two? Can Israel deny their release?” writes Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz.

“Hamas still retains some military capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip and has used the truce to rehabilitate some of what was destroyed in the seven weeks of war that preceded it. It has been badly damaged, but at this point still has the ability to reassert its control of Gaza and rebuild much of its military capacity.

“To prevent this, the Israel Defense Forces is poised to resume its ground offensive. But doing so will mean Israel acknowledging that the door for releasing more hostages has closed for now.

“This is just the first of the dilemmas now facing Israel. The second dilemma is when and how to expand the ground campaign to the southern Gaza Strip. Hamas’s senior leadership – including its leader in Gaza and the man behind the October 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar – are assumed to have fled south, most likely to Khan Yunis, taking many of the hostages with them.”

READ MORE
Hamas hostage releases are a daily mix of horror and relief. And this is the easy part (David Horovitz, Times of Israel)

Under Pressure: Three Fateful Decisions Israel Must Make About the War in Gaza (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz)

Irregular meals, benches as beds. As freed hostages return to Israel, details of captivity emerge (AP)

Israel looking into Hamas's claim that Bibas mother and sons killed in Gaza (Haaretz)  

 IDF: Hamas abducted Bibas family, including baby, handed them to other terror group (Times of Israel)