TEL AVIV — On Friday, Hamas announced that Israeli-American Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old IDF soldier, along with the remains of four other dual American-Israelis, will be released imminently. The terrorist group also rejected the most recent proposal for an extended ceasefire and hostage release presented by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
Not a single Israeli national, soldier or civilian, will be released. And this cynical gesture has enraged Israelis as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff also lashed out at Hamas warning that they were testing the patience of America.
Families are beginning to lose hope and fearing that their loved ones may never be freed.
Each one of the Israeli hostages released from captivity in the most recent “deal” with Hamas has been speaking freely of the unimaginable horrors they suffered.
This contrasts with the reticence of those released or rescued previously. They had feared what Hamas might do to those left behind.
But today, the former hostages feel a responsibility to expose the reality of their captivity. Because if they do not, they say, the likelihood is that all Israelis remaining in Hamas tunnels will be murdered. They are out of time.
Each day brings fresh testimonies. Each one is worse than the last. Earlier this week, Israeli channel 12 aired an interview with Omer Wenkert, 23, one of three young men freed in the most recent “deal” with Hamas.
Wenkert had gone to the Nova Music Festival with his best friend, 22-year-old Kim Damtri, an Irish-Israeli woman who was murdered by Hamas grenades and gunfire. Together, Wenkert and Damtri sought refuge in one of many small shelters that are everywhere in the area abutting the Gaza Strip. These compact, concrete structures are meant to protect people from mortars and rockets, which Hamas has aimed at the civilian population unrelentingly since 2007. They have no doors or windows. In parts of southern Israel, people have 15 seconds, at most, to dash for shelter once an alarm sounds. Often less.
On October 7, many of these shelters became death traps. Wenkert realized that he would be incinerated alive and decided he did not want to die like that. So, he left the shelter in which he was trapped, disentangling from bodies and gore. He was thrown in the back of a pick-up truck by Hamas terrorists. Bound. In his underwear. And then, with several others, he was driven into Gaza. Remarkably, Wenkert had the wherewithal to turn his head so that if any CCTV cameras were working, they would capture his image. He wanted Israel and his parents to know he was taken alive. From that day until just before his release Hamas provided no signs of life for Wenkert.
His testimony has gutted this country afresh. Even the very seasoned journalist who interviewed Wenkert, Almog Boker, broke down at one point.
Many of the released hostages have expressed dismay that it took so long for the Israeli government to negotiate their release; that this issue is even a matter of political debate in Israel.
Prior to the last release there remained a strong cohort of Israelis — including a majority of members in the governing coalition — who were committed to continuing the war to destroy Hamas. They accepted that the hostages would be sacrificed. The price for their freedom – the release of dozens of convicted terrorists for each Israeli — was unbearable, many said. Instead, this cohort advocates for a continuation of the war until every vestige of Hamas military infrastructure is obliterated. “Total victory,” they call it.
But most Israelis do not see this as a binary decision. To them the price of the hostages’ freedom is extortionate. But the price of abandoning them will be greater; it will destroy the soul and cohesion of the nation.
In recent polls, it has become apparent that the majority of Israelis — 70 per cent — support a deal that will bring them all home.
There is no question that many Israelis have been moved by the testimonies of recently released hostages. Their stories have also struck a nerve in the White House. President Trump has consistently called for the immediate release of all hostages, or else — as he has famously threatened — “there will be hell to pay.”
Exactly what that means remains unclear. But his threats seem to have sharpened the focus of Hamas and the Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries who have assisted with brokering these deals. Trump’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, is regarded in Israel as having been the driving force in finalizing the last deal. And Witkoff has been bearing down hard, again; to ensure that all those remaining in the tunnels — alive and dead — are released as soon as possible.
And that’s where it gets sticky. Because the hostages are Hamas’ main leverage. Without these human assets, Hamas knows that the IDF will renew the war with a force as yet unseen. Consequently, in the Doha-based talks that were reinvigorated in the last week, Hamas was insisting on a multi-year ceasefire. That would give them time to re-arm and rebuild.
The deal that was reportedly on the table would have seen half the living hostages (believed to be between men between the ages 22 and 24) set free very soon. The others — should they survive — would be released in two months. Also at that time, one presumes, all bodies held by Hamas as collateral would be returned. And the IDF would withdraw fully from the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. continues to insist that Hamas must be removed from power.
But, on Friday, Hamas rejected Witkoff’s plan. He has left Doha and is now in Moscow. And Israelis worry that President Trump may soon lose interest in the hostage issue.
Should Hamas not bend, then that plays into what many believe to be Netanyahu’s preference: to return to war. In the event that a more comprehensive agreement would reached, that would threaten the Netanyahu coalition. Many members of his government favour continuing the war. They stridently oppose any negotiation.
On the other hand, renewed war risks angering Trump, an inadvisable move. Furthermore, the possibility of IDF reservists refusing to show up for duty, yet again, after such a gruelling 17 months, is now very real.
Looming over everything is the raw power of people like Omer Wenkert, and Liri Albag, an IDF soldier who was just 18 when taken captive by Hamas. When a television interview with her was broadcast, also earlier in the week, Albag expressed how profoundly shocked and disappointed she and her fellow captives were when they learned that their fate had become so politicized.
Sitting between her parents (who have in the past described themselves as once hard-core Netanyahu supporters) as she spoke, Albag had sharp words for those in power who were prepared to leave her and the others to die in Gaza.
“It was very difficult for us to think that there are people who are really ready to sacrifice us,” she said. “Why? What did I do? I’m responsible for getting kidnapped?”
National Post
Vivian Bercovici is a former Canadian ambassador to Israel and the founder of the State of Tel Aviv.