On Saturday around noon, my wife runs into the room and shouts “they rescued four hostages!” Months after months we got only bad news: young soldiers killed on a daily basis; bodies of dead hostages recovered by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces); bombardment at the Northern border to Lebanon (courtesy of the Iran-proxy Hezbollah); growing antisemitism around the world; to name but a few. A couple of weeks ago Hamas even showed us that they can still indiscriminately attack the Tel Aviv region with their rockets, a population center with 4 million people.
The daring rescue operation was not without casualties. A commander in the rescue team got shot by Palestinians and subsequently died soon after. Casualty figures by the Palestinian Health Ministry (controlled by Hamas) claim 274 Gazans as victims, “mostly women and children”. The Palestinian women and children must be gifted fighters, as the Israeli rescue forces came under heavy machine gun and RPG fire during their withdrawal. See second video clip in the Times of Israel article.
The rescue of Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv on Saturday led to country-wide celebrations. In the evening at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, the mood among the tens of thousands of people and the hostage families present was also somewhat more hopeful. A group of Arab teenagers from the Northern town of Maghar also gathered at the rally for the release of the hostages, wearing the blue shirts of their youth movement.
The first speech was delivered by Lisa S. Katz on behalf of a delegation of American Mayors and city officials, pledging to support Israel and fight antisemitism.
As Israeli hostage families gathered on stage and presented at the podium, the mood quickly shifted back to our sad reality. 120 hostages are still kept by Hamas. Israeli officials believe that out of the 120 remaining hostages, probably a quarter have been killed or died. One speaker remarked that at the current speed of hostage rescue, it will take Israel 20 years to get all of them back.
Two of the speakers were Rotem and Shrulik Cooper, sons of Amiram Cooper (85) who was taken hostage and murdered by Hamas. Amiram Cooper was seen on a hostage video produced by Hamas as late as December 2023. Recently Amiram and other hostages have been declared dead while their bodies are still held by Hamas in Gaza. In their speech, the brothers asked for forgiveness that they haven’t done enough to bring their father back alive. They criticized the leadership for torpedoing hostage deals in the past, and called for an immediate hostage deal to get the surviving hostages out of Gaza. “Time is running out”, says Rotem Cooper.
Other speakers also called for an immediate hostage deal. In the meantime Hamas announced that it will kill the hostages at any attempt of rescuing them (with no condemnation from other countries or the UN). It remains to be seen if Hamas is willing to make a deal. With mounting international pressure against Israel, and literally none applied on Hamas, Israel has run into a difficult situation.
For 8 months the families of the hostages live in agony. The psychological burden on the parents, sisters, brothers, and children of the hostages is so heavy that it leaves physical marks. Sick people are especially vulnerable. Noa Argamani, one of the rescued hostages, went to see her mother who is terminally ill with brain cancer. Her mother’s last wish was to see her daughter back home, alive. The father of rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan died a few hours before the rescue – he never saw his son return.
Unable to control her tears, Noam Katz, orphaned by Hamas, calls for the release of the hostages. Her father Lior Rudaeff, 61, went to fight the terrorists at kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7. He was captured and murdered by Hamas. His body is held by Hamas in Gaza.
Hila Shtivi, sister of hostage Idan Shtivi, thanks the Israeli forces for the brave rescue mission and eulogizes Arnon Zamora, the commander in the Yamam National Police Counter-Terrorism Unit killed during Saturday’s rescue mission. On October 7, 2023, her brother Idan Shtivi was wounded by Hamas at the Nova music festival and is since held as hostage in Gaza. “They tell me I’m not guilty”, says Hila Shtivi. “but I feel guilty”.
Her brother Omri Shtivi reminds us that there are still 120 hostages held in Gaza. “Most of the (released) hostages were returned in a hostage deal to Israel, only a small number were returned in heroic operations by the IDF and the security apparatus”. Omri adds: “there is the Netanyahu (hostage) deal on the table and it may be the last chance to bring the hostages back.”
“The excitement and elation felt by the people today is proof that the right thing to do is to return the hostages home”, says Yamit Ashkenazi, sister of Doron Steinbrecher who was taken hostage by Hamas. Instead of empty slogans of “winning the war”, the focus should be on returning the hostages, as that is the only way to win.
A member of the Bibas family where father, mother and their two children (4 years, and a 9 month old baby) have been kidnapped, shows a picture painted by Ariel Bibas only a few months before his kidnapping. Ariel Bibas drew a picture of his superhero Batman and asked the kindergarten teacher to write down the following words: “I fly and rescue people caught in a pit”. In the most optimistic scenario today, Ariel Bibas is held in a pit, an underground tunnel, by terrorists, perhaps with the rest of the family. In January the IDF released footage recovered from a surveillance camera in Khan Yunis in Gaza where Shiri Bibas can be seen taken away carrying her two children Kfir (1 year now) and Ariel (4). Shiri’s parents were killed by the Palestinian Hamas in kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.
