Families across Israel and Gaza are anxiously counting down the hours to the start of a historic ceasefire in Gaza after 15 months of brutal war that has devastated the territory. The truce will allow the return of hostages held since the start of the conflict.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he expects the hostages to begin being released on Sunday, with Israel set to finally approve the deal. It will bring relief to families who have had to deal with the loss of loved ones amid the devastation wrought on Gaza – though they acknowledge the truce is a fragile thing that needs work to last beyond its initial six weeks.
One family member of a hostage told The Independent that “we must go all the way with the ceasefire deal, no one should be left behind” while another said that “enough is enough, bring everyone home”.
The Israeli security cabinet recommended approving the Gaza ceasefire and hostage return deal on Friday, with the rest of the cabinet expected to follow suit later the same day, allowing the truce to begin on Sunday.
Hamas triggered the war with a cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and left around 250 others captive. Israel believes 94 of those are still held in Gaza, with about 60 still alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. Around 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been forced from their homes at least once thanks to the bombardment, with much of the enclave left a wasteland.
Speaking from Hostage Square, where families hold regular protests demanding the government bring their relatives home, Shay Dickmann, a 29-year-old medical student whose cousins Carmel Gat and Yarden Roman-Gat were captured on 7 October, tells The Independent: “We must go all the way with the ceasefire deal, no one should be left behind”.
Her family knows the painful reality of deals falling through. Yarden was released in November 2023, but Carmel, 39 an occupational therapist, was due to be released in the current deal, when it was first tabled last year. She was shot dead by her captives in a tunnel in Gaza when the talks fell through. In tears, Shay urges: “This uncertainty is ripping families apart – there is a chance they could all be released. If this opportunity is missed you have no idea how long will be until the next time”.
The Israeli cabinet meetings had been delayed on Thursday, with Mr Netanyahu accusing Hamas of backtracking on the deal, amid severe pressure from hardline partners in his government coalition. Underscoring the potential obstacles facing a final ceasefire, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved. However, he said he would not bring down Mr Netanyahu’s government. His fellow hardliner, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, has also threatened to quit the government if it does not go back to war to defeat Hamas when the initial phase of the ceasefire is complete.
Under the first phase of the deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women, among them female soldiers, and men aged over 50. In exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages. The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second – and much more difficult – phase that will be negotiated during the first. The third phase would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza would be launched.
“Seeing people return is going to bring tears of joy,” says Alana Zeitchik, who has six family members seized by Hamas from the Nir Oz kibbutz in the Hamas attack. Four of her captured relatives, including a cousin and her three-year-old twin daughters were released in the last weeklong truce in November 2023. In this deal she expects close friends – the Bibas family – to be returned home, among them is the youngest hostage Kfir Bibas who was just eight months old when he was abducted.
But Alana’s cousin David Cunio, 34 – an electrician and father of the twins – and his brother Ariel Cunio, 27 both civilians and young men, are not on the list of the first 33 to be released. Alana describes the “euphoria” when her cousin Sharon Alony-Cunio, three-year-old twin daughters Emma and Yuli as well as Danielle Alony, 44, and her five-year-old daughter Amelia, were released last year, but she is concerned that the ceasefire may not last long enough to bring her other relatives home.
“We are worried that this will cloud the urgency that we will have to make sure the deal progresses to phase two,” she says. “We don’t have commitment from this government that phase two will happen, or that it will happen in any timely manner.”
As for the comments from Israeli ministers Mr Smotrich and Mr Ben-Gvir, she says: “The ministers who have been saying that they want to reject the deal, they’re a stain on the state of Israel, and they don’t represent the state of Israel… They must put all of our people above the politics.”
