Israelis and Palestinians await hostage-prisoner swap with relief and elation
- The San Juan Daily Star
- Oct 13
- 4 min read
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Israelis and Palestinians prepared Sunday for an exchange of all of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip for about 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, the cornerstone of a new ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli government said the exchange was expected to begin Monday morning local time, but Israel was prepared for it to happen even sooner. Under the agreement, Israel is supposed to free the Palestinian prisoners — scores of them serving life terms for deadly attacks on Israelis — in parallel with the hostage releases.
“This is a historic event that blends sorrow over the release of murderers and joy over the return of hostages,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded statement broadcast Sunday evening.
On both sides, there was relief mixed with elation after two devastating years of war. Adding to the hope: The open-ended truce between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by the United States and Arab mediators and began at noon Friday, appeared to be holding over the weekend.
As part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces have withdrawn to a new defensive line inside Gaza.
The war created a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the deal provides a pathway for desperately needed food, medicine and other supplies, which are starting to flow in.
On Sunday, efforts appeared to be underway to increase aid deliveries, with dozens of trucks crossing the border from Egypt, according to news footage. The number of trucks entering Gaza is supposed to double under the ceasefire, to about 600 per day.
The U.N. World Food Program said Saturday that it had begun scaling up its operations in Gaza and that in the coming weeks it planned to increase the number of bakeries it supports to 30 from 10.
The war in Gaza killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Most of the 2 million residents of Gaza were displaced multiple times.
With the ceasefire signed, thousands of displaced Palestinian residents have headed back to Gaza City in the north of the territory over the past days.
President Donald Trump was expected to leave the United States on Sunday and land in Israel on Monday for a short visit. He is set to meet with the families of hostages and address the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, in Jerusalem.
He then is scheduled to fly to Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort on the Red Sea, where he and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt will lead a summit with other Arab partners who supported the deal. World leaders have also been invited to attend.
Unveiling the ceasefire plan late last month, Trump described the occasion as “potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.” His celebratory declarations about bringing peace to the Middle East may be premature, however.
Netanyahu struck a more sober tone in his own statement Sunday, speaking in Hebrew to his domestic audience.
“Everywhere we fought, we won,” he said.
“But in the same breath, I must tell you: The campaign is not over,” Netanyahu cautioned. “There are still very great security challenges ahead of us. Some of our enemies are trying to rebuild themselves to attack us again. And as we say, ‘We’re on it.’”
Analysts say the ceasefire deal lacks details and leaves many critical questions unanswered, including whether Hamas will be disarmed and stripped of its power in Gaza and how the territory will be governed after the war.
Trump’s road map for ending the war envisions Hamas laying down its weapons and the demilitarization of Gaza. Netanyahu has long insisted on those steps as conditions for ending the war in Gaza. But Hamas officials have expressed deep reservations about both steps.
It is also unclear which, if any, countries were planning to send troops to join an international stabilization force that Trump had suggested would handle security in postwar Gaza.
Adding to the confusion, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, issued a statement Sunday saying that the greatest challenge for his country after the hostages’ release would be “the destruction of all of Hamas’ terror tunnels in Gaza.”
Katz said that mission would be carried out directly by Israeli military forces “and by means of the international mechanism that will be established under the leadership and supervision of the United States.”
Destroying the tunnels would be the main expression of the demilitarization of Gaza and the dismantling of Hamas’ weapons, Katz said. He said he had “instructed the Israeli military to prepare to carry out the mission.”
Israeli forces have now withdrawn from Gaza City, where much of the Hamas military infrastructure remains intact, according to Israeli leaders, who only recently described the city as one of the militant group’s last bastions.
Israeli forces had been taking over the core of Gaza City in a new phase of their campaign aimed at destroying Hamas’ military and governing abilities when the deal stopped them in their tracks.
Under the terms of the agreement, Israeli forces cannot return to areas from which they have withdrawn as long as Hamas is seen as complying with the deal.
“Israel is mistaken in thinking that it will be able to afford either to return to war or to maintain a Lebanese model of frequent attacks,” Yoav Limor, a commentator on military affairs for Israel Hayom, a right-wing daily, wrote Sunday. He was referring to Israel’s frequent military strikes against targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire reached almost a year ago that was meant to end its war with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia.
“That will never be tolerated, and judging by Trump’s recent statements, he, too, is determined to move on and has no interest in getting sucked back into Gaza’s problems,” Limor said.
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