The Gaza hostage deal represents a rare moment of humanity in a savage conflict that has inflicted unfathomable violence on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
For the child and female hostages expected to be released during a pause in the fighting and their families, it represents everything — a chance of life seven weeks after a Hamas terror attack on Israeli soil slaughtered 1,200 people.
There were growing hopes, for example, on Tuesday night that American Avigail Idan, who turns four on Friday and whose mother and father were murdered in the attacks on October 7, could be among the first released.
“I am very hopeful, our family is hopeful, it’s been 45 days since (Avigail) was abducted and taken to Gaza,” her great aunt Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “It’s excruciating. For our family, we have spent the last seven weeks – seven weeks – worrying, wondering, praying, hoping.”
The hours to come will be agonizing for loved ones waiting for their relatives – and even more so for those whose family members are not on the list to be freed in this preliminary arrangement. Much remains uncertain, including when the pause will start, how and when hostages will start to emerge and if the agreement will last.
The complex agreement was brokered by Qatar, which served as an intermediary between Hamas and Israel in exhaustive negotiations with the close involvement of the United States, and was endorsed by the Israeli cabinet early Wednesday local time.
It will likely require similar attention from all involved to implement in a vicious war zone and it will be at risk of unravelling at any moment. This is because of a vacuum of trust between two bitter enemies and the extreme logistical challenges of extracting hostages from a territory that waited weeks for the arrival of a few aid trucks amid a raging…
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