How is the release of hostages being received in Israel?

CairoWhen the first three Israeli hostages were released by Hamas in mid-January in Gaza, coinciding with the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, all of them looked better than expected and the medical services that treated them declared that their health was stable. The rest of the hostages who were released in two subsequent rounds were also in similar conditions. But this Saturday, during the latest hostage exchange The situation was very different, however. The three Israeli men who were released were visibly emaciated and thin, looking much more damaged than the previous hostages and with the effects of nearly 500 days of captivity evident on their bodies.

Their fragile condition caused a great shock in Israel and has increased concern about the situation of the hostages still in Gaza. These fears have also been reinforced by the weak commitment of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to fully achieve the agreement with Hamas, the decision of the Palestinian group to suspend the release of more captives, claiming that Tel Aviv is violating parts of some points of the pact, and the threat that a new exchange will not take place.

In an attempt to pressure Netanyahu's government to ensure the continuity of the agreement, thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Monday night and also on Tuesday. The Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons in Israel, in turn, demanded in a statement on Monday that the government not fall into "tripijocs" and said that the "appalling conditions" of the latest freed hostages show that "they must all be rescued urgently."

Last week Netanyahu emerged politically strengthened from his Meeting with Trump in Washington, during which the US president announced a plan to take control of Gaza after expelling its population. The proposal was rejected in Palestine and in the rest of the Arab world, which is forming a united front to counter it, but it was praised by Netanyahu's ultra-base and the extreme right-wing parties that give stability to his government.

Netanyahu's boycott

However, Netanyahu's honeymoon was short-lived. The return to Israel of about fifteen captives, and in particular the last three, is providing a better understanding of the conditions of those still in Gaza, creating further social distress. Some of the hostages explained that they were permanently chained, without seeing sunlight, in unsanitary conditions, deprived of necessary food and suffering physical and psychological abuse. The conditions are reminiscent of the mistreatment detailed by Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel.

The grief that is building as more details emerge about conditions in Gaza captivity is mixed with resentment toward the Netanyahu government. For one, when the last three hostages were released, the prime minister was still in Washington at a luxury hotel and most of his ministers did not react because it was Saturday, the Jewish holiday. And former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was fired in November, reiterated in interviews over the weekend that Netanyahu deliberately sabotaged negotiations with Hamas at least three times over the past year: in May, July and September.

In this context, Qatar, which was the main mediator of the agreement between Israel and Hamas, reproached Netanyahu for his statements in support of an ethnic cleansing of Gaza in the wake of the plan announced by Trump, believing that it is endangering the truce agreement in force. In addition, the parties should have started negotiations more than a week ago for the second phase of the agreement, which should begin in March and during which new rounds of exchanges of hostages for prisoners are planned. However, Tel Aviv has been delaying the sending of its team to Doha and the delegation that traveled on Sunday was of a low level and had no mandate to negotiate.

Even Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who has positioned himself against all proposals for an agreement with Hamas and on which the stability of the government depends, called on social media on Tuesday for the release of "all" hostages "now," in an apparent threat to Hamas.