First group of hostages includes children, women and elderly
16/1/2025 6:13
Families of Israeli
hostages held in Gaza gathered on Wednesday in the Tel Aviv
square where they have held rallies for more than a year, as
news trickled out of the agreement struck with Hamas to halt the
fighting in Gaza and bring the hostages home.
After more than 15 months in Hamas captivity, the first of
an initial group of 33 hostages is expected to be returned to
Israel on Sunday before negotiations on the release of the
remaining 65 begin around two weeks later.
The first group, made up of children, women, men over 50 as
well as the wounded and sick, will be released gradually over
the coming six weeks, but it was still unclear who on the list
is alive and who is dead.
Bring Them Home, a group representing hostage families,
issued a statement expressing "overwhelming joy and relief" at
the agreement but for many, the primary feeling was one of
exhaustion and doubt as they waited to learn the fate of their
loved ones.
"It's a roller coaster," said Yosi Shnaider, a cousin of
Shiri Bibas who was taken with her husband Yarden and children
Ariel and Kfir, who were 4 years and 10 months old during the
Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
"We don't know if they're on the list, if they're going to
come back in the first phase, if they're alive, if not. We
actually don't know anything. It's scary," he said.
The fact that the hostages would be returned in small groups
over many weeks, leaving families waiting, left a shadow over
the hope that their relatives could be back with them.
"The families cannot stand it anymore," he said. "I have no
words to describe how difficult it is."
The Bibas family are among the highest profile hostages
still held in Gaza. Ariel and Kfir are the only children left
after an earlier deal in November 2023 that returned more than
100 of the 251 people Israel says were seized in the attack by
Hamas fighters who killed some 1,200 soldiers and civilians on
the deadliest day in Israel's history.
Video showing Hamas gunmen abducting Yarden Bibas on Oct 7
was broadcast on Israeli media last year and the fate of the
family has gripped Israeli and world attention as the war in
Gaza has raged around them.
'THIS IS HELL'
The deal which may bring an end to the war came after months
of on-and-off negotiations and heavy pressure from the
administrations of U.S. President Joe Biden and of incoming
President Donald Trump, who promised "hell to pay" if the
hostages were not returned.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,000
Palestinian fighters and civilians, Palestinian officials say,
and devastated the coastal enclave, creating a humanitarian
crisis for more than 2 million people trapped in the rubble.
Hamas gave its agreement on Wednesday, and the Israeli
cabinet is expected to back it on Thursday. Foreign Minister
Gideon Saar cut short a European visit to attend a security
cabinet vote.
"This is the right move. This is an important move," Israeli
President Isaac Herzog said in a statement. "There is no greater
moral, human, Jewish or Israeli obligation than to bring our
sons and daughters back to us."
Surveys show that most Israelis support a deal to get back
the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza and end a war
that has left Israel increasingly isolated internationally and
taken an increasing toll on the military.
"I think that that's amazing, we've been waiting so long for
our hostages to finally come home, praying, hoping, and now it's
finally happening. And we're so excited," said 18 year-old
Ariella Cohen as she sat with friends in a Jerusalem cafe.
But the deal has also aroused strong opposition from
hardline nationalist members of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's government as well as from some of the hostage
families themselves.
Hardliners say it will undermine Israeli security in the
longer term, while relatives of male hostages, including both
serving soldiers and men of military age, fear they may never be
returned given the complications of negotiating with Hamas,
which remains in Gaza despite losing thousands of fighters and
most of its top leaders.
"This is not an agreement, this is just hell," said Daniel
Algarat, whose brother Itzhak Elgarat, 69, was abducted from Nir
Oz kibbutz on Oct. 7.
"Trump promised us hell and we are in hell," he said. "The
government doesn't have a mandate to bring just part of them,
they need to bring all of them back."
"My brother is going to come in the first stage but we don't
know what his condition is, we don't know if he is alive, we
know nothing."
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