Hostages returning home brings a range of emotions for Israelis - opinion

While we are happy that the hostages are returning home, Israelis live with the fear of the next terror attack to come from those released.

 A FREED Palestinian prisoner holds a weapon as he is carried after his release by Israel as part of the hostage deal, in Khan Yunis, last Saturday. We face vile murderers who scorn human life, individuals who planned attacks and killed dozens, including infants, families, young men, and women, the  (photo credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)
A FREED Palestinian prisoner holds a weapon as he is carried after his release by Israel as part of the hostage deal, in Khan Yunis, last Saturday. We face vile murderers who scorn human life, individuals who planned attacks and killed dozens, including infants, families, young men, and women, the
(photo credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)

The videos of Hamas terrorists emerging from hiding, climbing onto white Toyotas with weapons drawn, and celebrating in the streets of Gaza while surrounding the hostages – is heartbreaking, infuriating, and shattering for Israelis forced to watch from the sidelines. 

Fifteen months of bloody conflict in which Israeli society paid the ultimate price with the lives of its finest men and women, all under the belief that we were working to defeat Hamas, only to watch its fake media conference yesterday and discover there is neither victory nor deterrence. 

Hamas is celebrating a triumph.

What about the politicians? What about Israeli public opinion? For months, the aggressive campaign to return the hostages has prepared public opinion to accept a deal at any cost. 

On the other side, we face vile terrorists who scorn human life, demanding the release of mass murderers – individuals who planned attacks and killed dozens, including infants, families, young men, and women. 

A lock is seen on a prison cell in which a Hamas Nukhba terrorist is held, August 28, 2024 (credit: FLASH90/CHAIM GOLDBERG)Enlrage image
A lock is seen on a prison cell in which a Hamas Nukhba terrorist is held, August 28, 2024 (credit: FLASH90/CHAIM GOLDBERG)

Comes at a cost

The release of these terrorists comes with a certain cost of blood; they will return to carry out attacks on Israeli soil, send killers, and butcher children in their beds.

The Otzma Yehudit party, led by MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, chose to leave the government, in the meantime at least, to show its electorate that it has a moral spine and that it will not take part in a government that does not eliminate the Hamas terror organization. 

The ministers of the Religious Zionist Party have chosen the most difficult path. On the one hand, they remain in the government to ensure the continuation of the fighting and the preservation of key positions of power while refusing to rely on previous arguments of “influencing from within.” 

On the other hand, they and their communities live with the price of war and terror. How can they look into the tearful eyes of their children and community members after learning that the murderers of their friends and families are being released? 

How can they send their loved ones to future rounds of fighting when Hamas has received fuel and “humanitarian aid”?


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This is an impossible decision, and perhaps they did the only thing they could to blunt the issue: voting against the deal, knowing it would be approved regardless, while simultaneously ensuring that cabinet decisions include amendments as conditions for their future participation in the government. 

These amendments include demands for the continuation of the fighting, the dismantling of Hamas, and Israeli oversight of the humanitarian aid trucks – added as a “special clause” in the cabinet’s decision.

But is Israel truly capable, under the current military and political leadership, of returning to fight and ensuring Hamas’s destruction? Furthermore, does the military and political echelon have the legitimacy to ask reservists to return to battle after Hamas regroups?

Such legitimacy is possible only if the IDF prepares for a completely different kind of war than what has been waged in Gaza so far: a war involving population evacuation, abandoning the raid strategy in favor of intense combat, halting aid to Hamas, and equipping soldiers to achieve results with fewer casualties. 

These are, as I understand, part of the agreements involving Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and Defense Minister Israel Katz. All of this is with American backing that Hamas will not rule Gaza.

Let me end with tears of joy from the past few hours, touching the heart of every Israeli, after the reunion of the freed hostages with their families. At the same time, there is terrible anxiety about the terrorists who are also reuniting with their families. It is fitting to conclude with the eternal declaration: Am Yisrael Chai! (The people of Israel live!)

The writer, a communications and strategy adviser, is a former spokesperson for the Bayit Yehudi party and has managed political campaigns.