The news of Israel and Hamas finally agreeing to sign a deal was greeted with relief worldwide last Friday. This development offers hope for the release of the remaining hostages who have suffered under unbearable conditions for a long time. Additionally, it signals a potential end to the harsh 15-month conflict in Gaza.
The initial phase of the ceasefire and hostage swap deal will kick off on Sunday, with three out of the 33 hostages set for release being returned to Israel.
The negotiation for the exchange of the other 65 hostages, whether alive or deceased, is scheduled for the 16th day of the ceasefire. However, the actual repatriation of these individuals will commence in the second phase of the ceasefire, starting on the 43rd day of the agreement.
Hanukkah candles are lit at places set at the festival table for the Bibas family, an Israeli family including 11-month-old baby Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their parents, Shiri and Yarden, who are being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in The Hostages and Missing Square, on December 9, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)
“Many people don’t like it, because it is clear that Israel is losing the ability to destroy Hamas, as we promised,” Amidror said. “But we found ourselves in a situation that is the only way to get the hostages home.”
A wall covered with photos of hostages held in the Gaza Strip after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack calling for the release of the hostages on January 17, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. On Wednesday, a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was announced by mediators in the conflict. Formal approval from Israel’s cabinet was expected on Thursday, but delayed until Friday, although mediators insisted the deal was still expected to take effect on Sunday. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Amidror explained that it became undeniably evident that as soon as Israeli forces made advances in areas near where hostages were held, they were then assassinated by Hamas guards.
“We understood that there is no military way to get them. And we had to make a decision, a very tough one – do we give up the hostages [lives], or we are making a deal?”
John Hannah, former National Security Advisor to Dick Cheney and a JINSA Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow, said it was a “tortuous decision, enormously painful, but one that the Israeli people have to make.”
Hannah said that while the decision is “incredibly divisive,” polls show that the majority of Israelis support returning the hostages over completely destroying Hamas.
“Hamas is going to be able to claim that it survived,” Hannah said. “Israel will achieve one of its major war objectives, God willing, in the return of the hostages, but at the cost . . . [of] the annihilation of Hamas, both in its military and its governing components.”
Smoke and flames rise following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on November 2, 2023. (Ali Jadallah/Anadolu)
“The best deal is the one which was not achieved,” Amidror said. “This is the deal.”
“There is no other way to release the hostages, and from within Israeli society, that was very important,” the retired Major General said. “Israel is a democracy, the government should hear what the people say.”
