For those who were not involved in the negotiations over the hostage exchange deal – which means everyone but only a handful of people in the country – it is supremely easy to criticize.
Why is it structured in two phases? Why is it drawn out so long? Why weren’t all the hostages included in phase one? Why withdraw from the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors without securing everyone’s release?
The problem with this type of criticism is that it ignores the constraints the negotiators faced. It is easy to ask why they didn’t do X, Y, or Z without knowing whether doing X, Y, and Z was even possible.
That being said, and recognizing that it is easy to judge without full knowledge of the facts or understanding all the moving pieces or considerations in play, one thing is clear: The structure of this deal amounts to subjecting the country to Chinese water torture.
This is not to minimize the unimaginable physical and emotional suffering of the hostages or the nightmarish ordeal and torment their families have endured for the past 16 months. But beyond their personal anguish, the structure of this deal – releasing three hostages a week – is also exacting a heavy toll on the national psyche.
It’s early in the week, which means that the country is only now beginning to recover from the harrowing images of Saturday’s release of Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami.
Humiliating health status
It is still seething from the humiliating manner in which they were handed over – gaunt and emaciated, looking like concentration camp survivors, forced to mouth words of thanks to their sadistic captors.
It is still reeling from listening to interview after interview with relatives recounting the horrific experiences their loved ones endured – the chains, the starvation, the torture – and what those still in captivity continue to suffer. And then, on Saturday, the whole heart-wrenching cycle is set to begin again.
That, of course, assumes the next release will go through as planned, something Hamas cast into doubt Monday afternoon with its announcement that it is suspending the release over alleged Israeli “breaches” in the agreement.
Threatening to suspend the release is Hamas’s way of flexing its muscles. Israel needs to make it clear that if Hamas carries out its threat, Israel will extract a price – such as limiting the humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza, something that might get a more receptive hearing in Washington under US President Donald Trump than it did under former president Joe Biden. Israel, too, has muscles it can flex.
And when this crisis is overcome, and there is a further release of the hostages as stipulated under the deal, we can expect another malicious show by Hamas. Another three captives – who will surely look like those released on Saturday, if not worse. Another round of joy at their return and reunification with their families, mixed with the anguish of seeing their condition and hearing their stories.
And then, in the final week of this phase, set to end on March 1, the last 12 hostages of this phase are to be released, including two who have been held for 10 years: Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu. Eight of the final 12 kidnapped Israelis will come home in coffins.
One can only imagine what the “ceremony” will look like and the impact that will have on the country’s national psyche.
Looking at how this first phase was structured, one can’t help but wonder: Was there really no way to construct a deal in which all were released at once so as to spare the hostages more suffering in Hamas’s tunnels, to end the families’ relentless uncertainty, and to lift the nation from this debilitating psychological roller coaster? Wouldn’t it have been better to just pull the Band-Aid off at one go?
Again, this is written without full knowledge of the facts or what was and was not feasible. But from a national standpoint, the terms of this deal are almost unbearable.
Trump voiced similar sentiments aboard Air Force One on Sunday, telling reporters, “I know we have a deal where we’re supposed to get [the hostages]; they dribble in and keep dribbling in,” but given how bad shape the hostages are in, “at some point, we’re gonna lose our patience.
“When I see that scene that I saw today with people coming out of helicopters and airplanes that are emaciated, that look like they haven’t had a meal in a month, there’s no reason for that. And I don’t know how much longer we can take it.”
It is wonderful and a tremendous relief that the hostages are coming home. But there must be a better way than this agonizing trickle.
The Prime Minister’s Office’s coordinator for the hostages and the missing, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, said after Saturday’s release that Israel was shocked by the images and that the condition of those released “will not go unaddressed.” He added that this message was “conveyed to the mediators, and measures will be taken accordingly.”
What that means is unclear. What it should mean, however, is that the second phase of the deal – intended to secure the release of the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive – must be structured differently and in a way that avoids the slow torture Hamas is inflicting on the hostages, their families, and the entire country.