"Perhaps we are acting against all reason"

"Perhaps we are acting against all reason"

From tomorrow, 30 children are to be returned to their families from the hands of Hamas terrorists. Will twelve-year-old Eitan be among them? And how high is the price of national security that Israel is paying for the hostages?

For 47 days, at 5:30 a.m. on the Sabbath, Batsheva Yahalomi Cohen has been fighting for the life of Eitan, twelve years old. She has tried to calm her three children for hours while gunshots rang out outside, shouts of "Allahu Akbar" and smoke from the burning kibbutz seeped through the cracks. When the terrorists finally broke down the door, shouting "Come, come" with a gun pointed at her, she left. With Eitan and his sister, the baby in her arms. Past the bleeding father, who said he loved them and they should obey the terrorists. Batsheva knew what awaited the four of them. Hostages are gold for Hamas, always have been. "Take me, not the kids," she pleaded nonetheless, with no chance.

The fact that the mother has been sitting in TV studios ever since, telling her story on podiums in Israel, abroad and even in Berlin - in freedom and alive - is thanks to a motorcycle crash. The terrorist skidded off the bike as he was driving Batsheva and her two girls towards Gaza. The other motorcycle, with Eitan on the back, saw the mother disappear across the border. Ohad, her husband, is also believed to have been abducted. No sign of life from either of them for 47 days. And now the deal. Eight mothers, twelve old people, 30 children.

Bodies are still being autopsied

Whether these are all the abducted children, whether Israel will at least get the children back from the hands of their tormentors with this deal, cannot be said for sure. Autopsies are still being carried out on mortal remains. Some who were initially thought to be hostages have been identified as dead. Others who were initially thought to be dead may have been abducted after all.

Betsheva is not the only one fighting for Eitan's life and all the others. Since October 7, it seems as if the whole country has been shouting "bring them home". Israel was plastered with photos of the hostages on its facades, thousands marched for days from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Relatives of the kidnapped met with Qatari negotiators themselves and bypassed the government. That is how great the mistrust is, how little the Israelis still believe in the promises of their head of government.

It is a coalition in which a prime minister who has been counted out on suspicion of corruption is making a pact with right-wing radicals. At present, Benjamin Netanyahu still has the trust of four percent of the population. This was the result of the latest poll. 76 percent of respondents wanted him to resign immediately. The gulf between "Bibi's" right-wing government and the Israelis is so wide that even a minister musing on the radio about the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza can hardly add any more damage.

To avoid having to rely on the ultra-right, the prime minister has formed an emergency government with the opposition. This secured him a clear majority for the hostage deal, against the wishes of the right-wing Minister for National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

"Initially, Netanyahu didn't even want to meet with the families of the hostages," says Anita Haviv, who works on behalf of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education in Israel. But the security forces were also in favor of an agreement. "Netanyahu would never have gotten away with rejecting this deal," says Haviv. She sees the prime minister as someone who is easy to put pressure on. "In this case, an incredible amount of pressure was exerted."

Perhaps a first, cautious sigh of relief

So now the first ten hostages are to be released tomorrow in return for a ceasefire and the release of imprisoned Palestinians. Perhaps the return of these ten, the images of people embracing each other after weeks of unbearable fear, could allow the battered country to breathe a first, cautious sigh of relief. The concern for the remaining abductees is too great and the price Israel is paying is too high. "Solidarity with the hostage families is unreserved, but the country is also making itself extremely vulnerable," says Haviv.

On the political level, there are valid arguments against an agreement with the terrorists, only the encouragement of a successful agreement for possible imitators. The two components of the Israeli quid pro quo have an impact on the country's security. Almost 300 mostly young Palestinian prisoners are being released.

"As they are still young, they will not yet take on an immediate leadership role in Hamas or Islamic Jihad," is the assessment of Israel expert and author Richard C. Schneider. "But the radicalization has already begun, otherwise they would not be imprisoned. And it will have progressed further via Muslim clerics in prison, developments like this are also known from prisons in Europe and the USA."

Recent history proves Schneider right: in 2011, Israel released more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the life of the soldier Gilad Schalit, who had been imprisoned for five years. One of them was Jahia Sinwar, released after 23 years in Israeli custody. Today, Sinwar is the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He is considered to be largely responsible for the massacre on October 7.

The young prisoners who are now being released have "no blood on their hands yet", according to official statements. However, according to Schneider, it is very likely that Israel will release the next generation of Islamists, possibly terrorists, in the coming days.

This makes it all the more important for Israel not to be deterred in its war aim of completely destroying Hamas' military apparatus. The structures in which violent Palestinians have so far received training and equipment should no longer exist. On this path to the end of Hamas as a terrorist power, the agreement that has now been reached is a setback, but the security forces are confident that they will be able to deal with it.

"Hamas has completely lost North Gaza"

In military terms, the Israeli counter-attack is going much better than initially expected. The army had expected many of its own losses, but is complaining of far fewer casualties and is making faster progress. "New technologies and strategies have been developed that are obviously taking effect, so that Hamas has actually completely lost North Gaza on the one hand and many very important figures within its command structure on the other," summarizes Schneider. For Hamas, the ceasefire is a very urgent breather.

In addition to the break, Hamas also expects the hostage deal to bring concrete benefits for another problem, as the terrorists have overshot their own target with their public portrayal of the massacre: "The brutal images that Hamas deliberately produced with its Gopros to terrify the Israelis and the world have put them on a par with the Islamic State." After initial jubilation, many Palestinians turned away in the face of the brutality. Arab Israelis also often showed solidarity with their Jewish fellow citizens. Iran and Hezbollah are supporting Hamas far less than hoped. "Hamas is put in the same corner as IS. They want to get away from this image by releasing hostages."

What is good for Hamas is bad for Israel. It's that simple to summarize. But above this calculation is the compassion of the people for those who are innocent victims of terror. Tomorrow, some of them could return home, and perhaps Eitan Cohen will be among them. His mother Betsheva does not yet know. The authorities have not informed the families, the terrorists' promises are too fragile. They do not want to raise hopes that could lead to even worse disappointment.

1. The hostage deal, which includes the release of 30 children from Hamas custody, has sparked controversy in Israel, with some questioning the price of national security and the potential encouragement of terrorism.
2. The Israeli security forces and prime minister, despite facing mistrust and calls for resignation, have pushed forward with the agreement to release ten hostages, with the hope that it will lead to the safe return of Eitan Cohen and other abducted children.

Source: www.ntv.de