Final hostages come home to Israel, but now comes the hard part

In a Monday prisoner exchange, Hamas finally released the last 20 living hostages it captured on October 7, resolving for Israel the long-sustained dissonance of negotiating lopsided hostage releases with its genocidal foe. The moment provides Israel with great cause for rejoicing, but it also brings the Israeli government to a difficult, untrodden fork in the road.

On the seventh Day of Sukkot (the Feast of Booths, Leviticus 23:39), thousands of Israelis assembled in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square to welcome the returning hostages, joined by tens of thousands of Israelis watching at public viewings across the country. The date held symbolic significance in the Jewish calendar, since it comes on the eve of the two-year anniversary of Hamas’s terror attack, which came on Simchat Torah or the eighth day of the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:39).

For the hostages, their release after long captivity surely felt like a return from exile. They endured years of malicious starvation, physical abuse, psychological torment, and heartless wickedness at the hands of their terrorist captors. They spent most of the time hidden in oxygen-poor tunnels, cut off from the outside world.

Theirs were conditions like the psalmist described, “Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons,” until Yahweh “brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. … For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron” (Psalm 107:10, 14-16).

If ever there were a day for Israel to celebrate, surely the release of the final hostages qualifies.

Yet there remains a significant loose end. For starters, Hamas has only restored the living hostages to Israel, along with the bodies of four dead hostages. There are more than two dozen dead hostages remaining in Gaza. “Hamas is required to abide by the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the bodies,” insisted the IDF.

Part of the problem may be that not even Hamas leaders know where all the hostage bodies are. An international task force will seek to assist in locating the remaining bodies within 72 hours.

These conditions illustrate another problem: Hamas is still in Gaza. Under the terms of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, to which both Israel and Arab nations have agreed, Hamas is supposed to surrender its weapons and relinquish control of Gaza to a technocratic governing body, thereby securing Israel’s safety.

Like a towering redwood, the deep-rooted problem of Hamas in Gaza stands athwart Israel’s path, dividing it into two. Now that Israel has recovered every living hostage, it has now reached the fork in its path, and the moment of decision.

On one hand lies the trail that everyone from Arab despots to President Donald Trump is pressuring Israel to take: declare victory and end the war.

“Today, the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace, a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity,” intoned Trump in a Sunday speech before the Israeli Knesset. “The forces of chaos, terror, and ruin that have plagued the region for decades now stand weakened, isolated, and totally defeated,” he added.

These remarks built up to Trump’s crescendo, “You’ve won!” he declared. “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”

This was no idle rhetoric on Trump’s part. From Jerusalem, he journeyed on to Egypt Monday to meet with 20 Arab and Muslim leaders about the future of Gaza. Trump really believes — or wants to believe — that the war is over.

(Significantly, Netanyahu did not attend the summit, even though he originally planned to attend. Behind the scenes, Turkish President Recep Erdogan created last-minute drama, circling the airport and threatening to boycott the meeting “if any Israeli plane lands.” Netanyahu’s office gave the Jewish holiday as the reason for his absence.)

The question is, has Trump declared victory in Gaza too soon? Have he and his Arab negotiating partners begun to measure the drapes on a waterfront resort property whose blueprints have not yet been finalized?

The hard reality is that Hamas remains entrenched in Gaza, evil to its core, and an existential threat to Israel. The Monday hostage exchanges gave Hamas new life, after Israel released 1,900 prisoners in exchange for the 20 living hostages. Of these, 250 prisoners were hardened terrorists, serving life sentences on murder and terrorism charges, while the others had been detained since October 7. The result is many more foot soldiers at the disposal of Hamas (although not all were released into Gaza).

Already, emboldened by the ceasefire with Israel, armed men in masks have been seen on the streets of Gaza and in conflict with anti-Hamas tribal militias. Over the weekend, Hamas militants raided the Gaza City neighborhood occupied by the Al Doghmush family militia. The one-sided violence resulted in the death of 52 Doghmush members and 12 Hamas militants.

Objectors may point out that the current ceasefire prevents Hamas from attacking Israel, but Israel vividly remembers Hamas’s bad faith towards temporary peace agreements. Hamas broke ceasefires with Israel in 2003, 2007, and 2008, nine ceasefires in 2014, and another on October 7, 2023. Whenever a military or political opportunity next presents itself, Hamas is sure to break the ceasefire again.

Hamas is evil not only for its untrustworthiness, but for the brutal, illegal terrorist tactics it routinely employs in pursuit of its goal: genocide of the Jews. Israel recently reminded the world of Hamas’s evil intentions by publishing an August 2023 memo written by the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in which Sinwar instructed Hamas’s terror brigades mobilized in the planned October 7 massacres to attack civilians and film their atrocities to frighten and destabilize Israel.

As a result of Israel’s many security concerns, Netanyahu seems poised to choose a different path than that urged by Trump. “The campaign is not over. There are still very great security challenges ahead of us,” he cautioned on Sunday. That sure sounds like Netanyahu plans to continue fighting, even as the White House would like to declare victory.

It is difficult to know what lies upon any path beyond the first bend of the future. If Israel resolves to keep on fighting an unyielding Hamas, will that provoke Trump’s anger and a permanent loss of support? Will it merely prompt a public disagreement while the two leaders continue to cooperate at a deeper level? Or, will Netanyahu be able to amass sufficient evidence of Hamas violations that Trump actually sides with Israel?

The other unknown question is what world leaders will do with Hamas. Will Arab nations shoulder their newly assumed responsibility for Gaza’s security and kick Hamas to the curb? Will they allow Israel to do the dirty work instead? Or will they simply revert to the pre-war status quo of providing soft support to Hamas as an incurable nuisance to Israel?

In other words, the stakes are nothing less than the legacy and longevity of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, and the most important criterion is whether it will result in world leaders ousting Hamas from power. The deal has been struck, but now comes the hard part.

Originally published at The Washington Stand.