Ceasefire Survives Two Breaches

As the latest part of the ceasefire agreement to enable release of hostages in exchange for release of prisoners, Hamas handed over four female Israeli soldiers on Saturday, in front of cameras streaming the event live.

In a carefully staged performance on Saturday morning, dozens of masked terrorists gathered in Gaza City’s Palestine Square, surrounding a platform where Red Cross representatives were asked to sign acceptance of the hostages to be released. The four women were then paraded onto the platform before being handed over.

Soon afterwards, the four hostages shared something of their experiences in captivity saying,

“There were periods when there was no food, when the IDF attacked near and it was frightening.
We supported one another, and we strengthened one another.”

However, despite the release of those four, Hamas breached the ceasefire agreement in two ways. They did not release another civilian female hostage, Arbel Yehud, who should have been freed before any military hostages, nor did they provide details of which hostages are alive among the total of 33 scheduled for release in this first phase of the agreement.

In response to those breaches, Israel refused to let Gazan civilians return to the north of the Gaza Strip, which then prompted the terrorists to change their minds and agree to release three additional hostages on Thursday 30th January, including Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger (a female soldier), and an unidentified male captive.

Then, on Monday, Israel was able to publish the numbers Hamas eventually provided about living hostages, saying that 18 of the 26 still due to be released are alive, meaning that the other eight are dead.

This raises increased concerns for the Bibas family, who are among the remaining 26. As civilians, they should have been released in the early exchanges if they are alive. But when dealing with terrorists, it is difficult to know until they are actually handed over.

In the following video report, Shani Ferguson of Maoz Israel provides an interesting perspective on the way the four hostages were handed over on Saturday, noting that Hamas were trying to convey power and legitimacy.