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The agreement to stop the war between Israel and Hamas and release hostages still held in Gaza has given families exhausted by waiting more than a year a glimmer of hope that they might finally see their loved ones again.
But hope is only part of the story. Many families were taken hostage Israel by Hamas On October 7, 2023, they have no idea about the condition of their relatives, or even whether they are alive. Even those with signs that their relatives have survived yet do not know whether the deal will hold long enough for their release.
“These are truly probably the most stressful days we have seen in over a year,” Udi Goren — whose cousin Tal Haimi was killed defending Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak from a Hamas attack, and whose body was transported to Gaza — said at a news conference. Thursday.
According to the deal With mediation by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, the final details of which were still being worked out on Thursday, the 98 hostages still in captivity – not all of whom are alive – will be released in three stages.
The agreement comes after months of failed attempts to reach an agreement, during which the fate of the prisoners became one of the most emotive issues in Israeli society. It has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets to support the hostages, whose relatives have campaigned relentlessly for the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu The government to reach an agreement for their freedom.
During the first six weeks of the agreement – which was the Netanyahu government It will meet on Friday For discussion – 33 hostages, including children, women, the sick, and the elderly, will be released in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. In the second stage, the remaining living hostages will be released, and in the third stage, the bodies of the remaining hostages will be returned.
This structure means that even families whose relatives are scheduled to be released in the first phase may face an agonizing wait of up to six weeks.
But for families whose relatives are not scheduled to be released until the final stages, the uncertainty is greater, as those two stages depend on Israel and Hamas agreeing to a permanent end to the war, something the far-right members of Netanyahu's coalition have ordered. Strongly opposed.
“There is nothing I would like to see more than these people, my new extended family, getting their loved ones back, getting their lives back, and stopping this agonizing suffering day after day,” Goren said of the other hostage families.
“On the other hand, for us, who were not included in the first part, this is not the end of the road. This is just the beginning of a new phase of our struggle.”
Joshua Hantman, who helped create a forum representing families of hostages, said the families and “the entire country” were bracing for “another period of torture.”
“Even for those families on the list (for the first phase), this is not a period of unbridled joy,” he said. “It's a period of anxiety with a small sliver of hope.”
“It's just incredible uncertainty, after 469 days of agonizing pain… There were reports of people being held in tunnels all the time, of people being held in cages. No one knows what condition they are in.”
Hamas took 250 hostages during its attack on October 7, and more than 100 of them were released during a short truce in late 2023. Israeli forces rescued a handful of others. Israeli officials estimate that more than a third of the remaining hostages are no longer alive.
For many relatives of hostages, especially relatives of hostages who died in captivity, the pain is compounded by the nagging feeling that the deal – which US President Joe Biden first outlined in May last year – should have gone through. Hit sooner.
Gil Diekmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was killed last year by Hamas after 11 months in captivity, said the families want answers as to why it took so long to reach an agreement. “The way I see it, the only thing that has changed between May and now is that more hostages have died, including Carmel, and Trump is now president,” he said.
But he said the most important thing right now is to implement it fully. He added: “We call on all parties concerned to do everything in their power until we reach a complete agreement with all the hostages, because the matter will not be done until all the hostages return to their homes.” “It is a good beginning. It is the beginning of the end. But this is not the end until all the hostages return home.”