In the Media

Daily Telegraph/ Courier Mail/ The Advertiser – 20 January 2025

Barring further last-minute hitches, an indescribable sense of relief will soon overwhelm a number of Israeli families as they begin to see their loved ones freed in the wake of the second hostage-for-ceasefire/terrorists deal brokered with the terror group Hamas. However, this will be offset by the agonising fact that more than 60 others, living and dead, remain in horrendous captivity in Hamas’ tunnels. Their families will continue to suffer.

The incremental nature of the deal’s implementation also means that it can’t be taken for granted that all the agreed-upon captives will make it out. Some – Hamas cruelly refuses to say how many – will only be transferred in body bags. Nevertheless, behind the suspense of a fragile deal with a merciless terror organisation stands a hope – 33 women, children, people with severe injuries and those older than 50, could soon come home, after 15 months of horror and darkness.

The limited deal, which does not officially end the war but will make it very challenging to resume it, gives Hamas the image of victory it thirsted for. It hopes to be glorified in the Arab world as heroes who forced Israel to hold fire, withdraw forces, and release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners in this round, many convicted of murderous terror offences including notorious mass-murderers. The revelry that will accompany this process in Gaza and the West Bank will be stomach-turning.

Releasing terrorists is inherently risky for Israel. A similar prisoner release with Hamas in 2011 in exchange for Gilad Shalit freed Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack.

Nevertheless, most Israelis and diaspora Jews viscerally welcome the deal. For so many of us, since October 7, the families of the hostages have become part of our own. The plight of the hostages cast a pall on every holiday, wedding and birthday, and for many, kept us awake at night.

None of that will end after the hostages from this interim deal are freed. At best, the massive dark cloud hanging over us may shrink somewhat.

Yet we Jews, as a people who live under the eternal commandment to “choose life” over death, will take it with both hands, despite the deal’s many downsides.

This agreement again rewards Hamas for a hostage-taking strategy which dates back over 30 years, to October 1994, when it abducted 19-year-old Nachshon Wachsman to the West Bank and killed him during an IDF rescue attempt.

Furthermore, the hostage deal implicitly reconfirms Hamas as the de facto ruler of Gaza, in spite of the massive military losses it has incurred.

The six-week ceasefire gives Hamas more time to cement its control over the Palestinian population, including in a repopulated northern Gaza, and pilfer more humanitarian aid, which it is in turn obscenely selling to its own people to recruit new fighters, including teenagers. It will undoubtedly use the time to prepare more deadly surprises for the IDF and Israel as a whole.

Hamas will look to build upon the achievements of its propaganda and lawfare campaigns that have served it remarkably well since October 7. To date, many news reports simply report Hamas-run health department casualty figures without qualification or even any attempt at establishing a differentiation between armed jihadists and civilians unintentionally hurt or killed, as is a regrettable but unavoidable consequence of war everywhere.

While much has been made of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reluctance over the months to discuss a “day after” for Gaza, the latest hostage deal is a reminder that there can be no “day after” for either Israel or Gaza while hostages remain in Hamas’ grip.

One must further internalise the sobering reality that Hamas did not take hostages on October 7 just to release all of them and make Israelis united and happy, but as a highly successful weapon in its campaign to destroy Israel and insurance policy to maintain its hegemony in Gaza. Israel never had the ability to unilaterally “bring them home”, certainly not alive.

Thus, Israel has had to now agree to a Faustian bargain to achieve a partial release. It is now up to the world to ensure that this deal – which both Australia and the US have long called for –leads to arrangements that achieve what our leaders have insisted must also happen: Hamas must release all remaining hostages, be disarmed and have no future role in ruling Gaza. Gaza must be rebuilt in a way that prioritises its residents’ welfare, not more preparations for endless warfare.

Hamas will resist these demands. If the world wants to avoid a repeat of the current war, it must back any measures, including credible Israeli threats to resume its offensive in Gaza, that will prevent Hamas from turning this hostage deal into a “victory” for terrorism, “resistance” and its criminal strategy of abducting people.

Ahron Shapiro is senior policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council